If I wrote that the North Korean government has blocked me from viewing their Twitter feed, you probably wouldn’t be at all surprised. Many of you also know that I have been extremely critical of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz for the last year, or so, and thus you wouldn’t be surprised if I told you that they had blocked me from their Twitter feeds. I have never posted directly to the North Korean Twitter feed and thus I haven’t been blocked. And although I have posted critical memes and posts to both Ted Cruz and Donald Trump’s Twitter feed, neither have blocked me from their Twitter feeds. However, I asked a simple question; whether it was true that two individuals were being blocked by the El Paso Police Department, and their response was to block my access to their Twitter feed.
Although, the El Paso Police Department’s blocking of my access to their Twitter feed, and others, raises many questions i.e. First Amendment rights – there is one specific issue that needs to be addressed – limiting the access of anyone to public information records and what it means in regards to the freedom of information laws of the nation and the State of Texas.
Let’s get past the technical question first as I am sure that both the El Paso Police Department officials and their supporters are likely to bring it up. Twitter is an open social media platform intended to openly convey information. As an open medium, the police department’s actions do not limit my access to their public information, it just makes it more tedious for me to access. Now that I am blocked, in order for me to see the public information, I must be logged off of Twitter to read their posts.
This issue is a Texas public information issue, nonetheless. The El Paso Police Department is selectively blocking certain individuals from exercising their First Amendment rights as well as limiting their access to public information. That violates, at the very least, the spirit of the Texas Public Information Act.
This is not the first time that a Texas government official has blocked anyone from their Twitter account. In late February of 2011, several news reporters complained that then Texas governor Rick Perry was blocking journalists from his Twitter account. Perry’s official position, on the matter, was that it was his “personal account” and thus, he could “manage it as he likes.” There have been at least two other cases of Texas public officials blocking journalists from their Twitter feeds. One involving a controversial Houston school district trustee and a recently elected Texas senator that had blocked another journalist during her campaign. Most recently, Turkey has allegedly blocked Twitter during the recent coup there last week.
Rick Perry argued that his Tweeter account was a personal account and thus not subject to open records requests. Therefore, this brings us to the matter of who owns the Twitter handle @eppolice and who manages that account. This is important because under the Texas Public Information Act we must first determine whether the account is an official account for a Texas public entity. Lucky for us, the City of El Paso was extremely responsive to my open records requests that I submitted on Friday.
One of the two requests that I filed on Friday asked the City who was responsible for the police department’s Twitter account. According to their response, there are four individuals that are responsible for the Twitter account.
They are: Darrel Petry, Sgt. Robert Gomez, Mike Baranyay and Sgt. Enrique Carrillo. As many of you know, Darrel Petry is the El Paso Police Department’s Public Information Officer. Mike Baranyay also works in the public relations department of the police department.
All of them are city employees.
My second request asked for the city’s official social media policy. As expected, the city’s official policy manual focuses on the responsibilities of employees and enforces that the city owns the content. The October 24, 2012 policy that the city sent me specifically states “social media content is subject to open records laws.” [III. Procedure, 6.; page 5]
There you have it; the city’s official policy is that the Twitter account is subject to the Texas Public Information Act.
There is no ambiguity there.
As an aside, I would have liked to ask these questions directly through Twitter, but I couldn’t because the El Police Department has blocked me from their Twitter account.
Now that we know that the El Paso Police Department’s Twitter account is a public information channel and that it falls under the Texas Public Information Act then the obvious question, is the El Paso Police Department in violation of the law by blocking me, and other selected individuals?
We know that four individuals are the ones that are likely blocking access to the Twitter account. As a reminder they are: Baranyany, Carrillo, Gomez and Petry. As some of you know, the Texas Public Information Act carries with it criminal penalties that include jail time for violations of its provisions.
The Texas Public Information Act is designed to allow for the rights of the people to hold their government accountable, to allow for peaceful protests of government policies and to embrace the federal Freedom of Information Act. Whether you stand in support of Chief Greg Allen or against him is immaterial to the actions of the police department.
By selectively limiting the access to certain individuals to their Twitter feed, it sends a very chilling message; that the El Paso Police Department does not believe that they should be scrutinized by the public.
Martin
Really! You are kidding right! They are not blocking you or any ones access to public information from the El Paso PD. So you are telling us you cannot read any social media from El Paso PD ? Got to call Bull shit Bull shit. Show us the law where you have a right to post to the El Paso PD social media any thing you want. There are no such laws. How is the El Paso PD limiting your rights to hold them accountable by not allowing you to post on their social media platforms?Your rights have not been limited you can still send and received ORR, your access to the process of questioning government has not been restrained. Show us where the El Paso PD has not answered any request you have made for public records or public information and any request for records or information that has unlawfully been refused or with held by El Paso PD.
Yep go try and file that criminal complaint or sue them for censoring your comments on their social media and see how far it goes. Goody luck on that you and others will be laughed out of the court house if you so try. Oh show us any where in government local, state our federal you can post what every you want on their social media unrestrained. Martin you know and I know you can’t and this article non-sense.
Agreed.
Martin, first, you are not a journalist. You are an IT specialist with a blog. As someone who has a degree in journalism and has actually worked for newspapers, I can tell you that while your blog is informative, it doesn’t make you a journalist. The reason an editorial page isn’t called a news section and columnists aren’t called reporters is because the content is opinion on news-related items, but not news. Your blog is predominantly opinion-focused, as well. Second, organizations don’t block you from their twitter feed to keep you from getting their news. They block you to limit the content you produce that would otherwise be delivered on their feed. If their feed is publicly viewable they are meeting the test of open records. If they choose to block followers who are posting content that they don’t find appropriate for their feed, that is legal. There are channels for asking the questions you want to ask that don’t involve twitter. Most well-run organizations have clear social media policies that limit what is and isn’t acceptable on outside content and they moderate content that doesn’t fit those policies. I see nothing wrong with what they are doing. Nor would most professional journalists. One of the first lessons you learn is that gotcha tactics will only get you a story once from an organization. Building relationships and respect within the organization’s structure will get you many stories (including the big ones). Asking questions on a twitter feed is a gotcha tactic.
Martin. You are more of journalist than those pigs at the slimes.
Martin, a little clarification based on my experiences with the EPPD… Det Lt. Mike Baranyay is more Public Relations than Info. His official duty position is Administrative Assistant to the Chief bit don’t let the title fool you… he has a MS in Criminal Justice Administration!
Lt Baranyay, in my experience (and please, remember, I can be a dick!), has ALWAYS been a professional and has addressed issues I’ve raised in a fair and unbiased manner. As such, he has to “clarify” the Chief or Departments positions at times…
Having said that, giving the state of affairs, he has a tough job but I doubt that he himself would block anyone’s posts otherwise I would not have access!
Another question is if these are city employees is Tweeting done on city time or their time … the time tweeted would tell. If on city time and using city computers or tablets … and representing the EPPD … then it seems that nobody could be blocked unless they have a protocol approved by the Council and the blocked one falls under the protocol. This is not trivial at all as public information and censorship are serious matters.