Social Media Use and the First Amendment

This report explains FIRE’s survey — covering over 200 public universities and colleges — concerning how these government institutions filter or block content and users on their official Facebook and Twitter accounts. Using examples of censorship identified in public records acquired from these institutions by FIRE, "No Comment: Public Universities' Social Media Use and the First Amendment" discusses how the First Amendment applies to government actors’ use of social media and explains why their use of the filtering and blocking tools may violate the First Amendment.

View Text
DownloadReport (PDF)

---

Commentary on 'No Comment: Public Universities' Social Media Use and the First Amendment'

• "Institutions stonewall public records requests over Facebook, Twitter accounts," April 23, 2020
• "How social media companies and government actors can improve freedom of expression online" April 24, 2020
• "How to FOIA your college’s Facebook and Twitter records" April 27, 2020