Court records: Bevin blocks thousands of social media users

Court records: Bevin blocks thousands of social media users | iNFOnews.ca
FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2019, file photo, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin delivers the State of the Commonwealth address to a joint session of the state legislature at the state Capitol in Frankfort, Ky. Newly released court records say Bevin casts a wide net when blocking people on social media, citing reasons such as surpassing “a limit on idiocy” and “trolling.” The number of blocked accounts has ballooned from 600 to nearly 3,000 since two years ago. The Courier Journal reports the records are part of an ongoing federal lawsuit against Bevin by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which sued on behalf of two blocked Kentuckians. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston, File)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Newly released court records say Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin casts a wide net when blocking people on social media, citing reasons such as surpassing “a limit on idiocy” and “trolling.”

The number of blocked accounts has ballooned from 600 to nearly 3,000 since two years ago. The Courier Journal reports the records are part of an ongoing federal lawsuit against Bevin by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. It sued on behalf of two Kentuckians who say being blocked violates their First Amendment rights.

Records say the Republican governor’s staffers hid online comments including words such as womb, menstruation, uterus, booger, tax returns and Trump. They say Bevin also broadly ordered staffers in 2017 to “sweep out the trash” on Facebook. ACLU attorneys say screenshots of blocked comments show 90% were critical of Bevin.

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Information from: Courier Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com

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