Montgomery County Commissioner Joseph C. Gale has reached a settlement with eight constituents who filed a federal lawsuit against him after he blocked their access to his social media sites, alleging social media censorship, writes Carl Hessler for The Phoenix Reporter & Item.

Under the court settlement, Gale has to restore the constituents’ access and stop blocking their comments.

Gale and Friends of Gale “shall immediately cease blocking any social media users from following or having access to” his Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts, wrote U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Savage in the court order.

Savage also wrote that Gale “shall not delete or edit comments posted within the social media accounts.”

In the lawsuit, seven constituents claimed Gale blocked them on social media after they posted comments critical of him. An eighth constituent wanted to see the full range of dialog on the commissioner’s pages but was not able to due to Gale’s deletion of unfavorable comments.

The settlement is “a good thing for freedom of speech in Montgomery County, that’s for sure,” said lawyer Adam Zucker.

Read more about the lawsuit at The Phoenix Reporter & Item by clicking here.

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