The following can be attributed to Katie Fallow, senior counsel of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. 

“We’re gratified that the Court recognized that public officials must comply with the First Amendment when they use their personal social media accounts to carry out their official duties, as former President Trump did with his Twitter account. The Court was also right to hold that public officials can’t immunize themselves from First Amendment liability merely by using their personal accounts to conduct official business. We are disappointed, though, that the Court did not adopt the more practical test used by the majority of the courts of appeals, which appropriately balanced the free speech interests of public officials with those of the people who want to speak to them on their social media accounts. We hope that in implementing the new test crafted by the Supreme Court today, the courts will be mindful of the importance of protecting speech and dissent in these digital public forums.”

Last June, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed a consolidated amicus brief with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Woodhull Freedom Foundation in both cases. The brief emphasized that because government officials and agencies use social media extensively to communicate with constituents, provide important public notices, and debate key policy and political issues, these are vital spaces for public discourse. It asked the Court to confirm that the First Amendment forbids public officials from blocking people based on their viewpoints from social media accounts that the officials use to carry out their governmental duties. Read the brief here.

In Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump, the Institute successfully argued that the First Amendment applied to then-President Trump’s nominally personal Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, because it was used as an extension of his office. Since that time, numerous courts have agreed with the Knight Institute’s arguments. Read more about that case here. 

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, adriana.lamirande@knightcolumbia.org.

The following can be attributed to Katie Fallow, senior counsel at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University: 

“The Court should make clear that public officials who use their social media accounts as extensions of their offices are subject to the constraints of the First Amendment. The public officials in these cases are seeking a ruling that would allow them to block people whose views they do not like from their social media accounts, even when the officials use those accounts to communicate with their constituents about official business. With more officials using social media accounts as forums for debate and civic engagement, the Supreme Court should confirm that the First Amendment protects the rights of people to speak in these forums regardless of their views.”

The Knight Institute’s amicus brief emphasized that because government officials and agencies use social media extensively to communicate with constituents, provide important public notices, and debate key policy and political issues, these are vital spaces for public discourse. To protect the public’s right to engage with each other and with government representatives, the Court should confirm that the First Amendment forbids public officials from blocking people based on their viewpoints from social media accounts that the officials use to carry out their governmental duties. Read the amicus brief here.  

In a case filed in 2017, Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump, the Knight Institute established that public official’s social media accounts can be “public forums” under the First Amendment. Learn more about that case here. 

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, adriana.lamirande@knightcoulumbia.org. 

The Knight Institute wrote the first version of this guide in response to the Second Circuit’s decision in Knight Institute v. Trump, which held that then-President Donald Trump violated the First Amendment when he blocked critics from a personal Twitter account that he used to carry out his duties as president. Following the Knight v. Trump decision, courts across the country grappled with the question of when a government official’s use of a social media account should be considered subject to the First Amendment, with some conflicting outcomes.

In March of this year, the Supreme Court sought to resolve those conflicts in deciding Lindke v. Freed, and created a two-part test to determine when a government official’s social media account should be considered official. The first part of the Lindke test asks whether the public official has authority to speak on behalf of the government. The second part of the test asks whether the official used social media to carry out that authority and looks to, among other things, the nature of the official’s posts and the appearance of the account.   

Social Media for Public Officials 2.0 breaks down how a court might determine whether you have the authority to speak on behalf of the government, as well as how your posts might inform a court’s decision of whether they were official or private speech. It also includes all of the still-relevant guidance from our original guide. 

If you’ve been blocked by a public official from that official’s government-run account, please email info@knightcolumbia.org to let us know.

There is often uncertainty, however, about whether a government official’s use of social media should be considered “official” or “personal.” And that uncertainty is exacerbated by the tendency of some public officials to use their social media accounts for both official and personal purposes.

In 2024, the Supreme Court accounced a two-part test for determining whether a public official’s use of a social media account should be treated as “state action” and thus subject to the First Amendment. Under this test, a court will first ask if the public official has the authority to speak on behalf of the government. The authority can come from a written statute or regulation, or can be based on local custom. For example, if a city’s mayor has traditionally spoken to city residents about her work for the city, it is likely that the mayor will be deemed to have authority to speak on behalf of the city. If she has authority, a court will next ask whether and to what extent the public official is using the social media account in furtherance of her official responsibilities. This second part of the test looks to, among other things, the appearance of the account and the nature of the official’s posts.

In this document, we offer some guidance to public officials who use, or want to use, social media in connection with their official duties. What we offer here isn’t legal advice—if you’re a public official, you should read our guidance, but you should also consult your own attorney. The guidance we provide here is meant to help public officials derive the benefits of social media, and navigate some of the challenges associated with social media, without running afoul of the First Amendment.

Our guidance is informed by settled First Amendment principles as well as an increasing number of court decisions applying these principles in the context of social media accounts. This said, it’s important to note that the technology of social media is new and evolving, that many questions about how the First Amendment should apply to this technology have yet to be resolved by the courts, and that some of these questions are genuinely difficult. We will amend this guidance as the law, technology, and our own thinking evolve.

1. If you want your social media account to remain “personal,” don’t use it for official purposes.

Public officials don’t surrender their First Amendment rights by entering public service. If you’d like to, you can maintain a personal social media account and use it to discuss your family, your golf game, or your thoughts as a citizen about world affairs. And like any other user of social media, you can block followers from a personal account for any reason.

If you use social media for official purposes, though, the First Amendment restricts you from doing some of the things you could do with a purely personal account. Our advice: If you don’t want to be bound by the First Amendment, don’t use your social media account as an extension of your office. Don’t use it to make announcements about your official responsibilities or actions. Don’t use it to solicit the public’s views about what legislation you should introduce or support, or whom you should appoint to an official government post, or whether you should vote to impeach the president. Don’t use it to carry out your duties—to call official meetings, for example, or to issue orders that you have the authority to issue only because of your government position. 

At a high level, if you have the authority to speak on behalf of the government, and you make posts to a social media account in the exercise of that authority, those posts will be treated as official and you must comply with the First Amendment. In assessing whether you are using your account in an official capacity, courts are likely to consider:

• Whether you have authority to speak on behalf of the government. Does your job description, or any applicable law or regulation, authorize you to speak to the public on behalf of the government? Or have you or previous officials in your position typically spoken to the public about matters related to your official duties? Note that the question courts will ask is not whether you have the authority to speak on social media in particular, but whether you have the authority to speak on behalf of the government in general. A court may conclude that you have the authority to speak on social media, even if you haven’t done so in the past.
• What your social media posts say. Do your posts make formal announcements that only a government official could make? Do they communicate information about your official duties or solicit input from constituents and the general public about those duties? If you are accused of blocking someone from an account that contains some official posts, you may be held liable even if the account also contains personal posts.
• Whether you use government resources in connection with your account. Does your staff help you with your account by, for example, drafting, reviewing, or posting social media messages, or otherwise managing the account? Do you use government equipment or other government resources in operating your account? Do you use your account while carrying out your official responsibilities—for example, while attending events in your official capacity?
• How you present the account. Do you associate the account with your official position by, for example, including your official title in your account description, or using a profile picture that shows you acting in your official capacity? Do you refer to the account as “official,” and, if not, do you expressly indicate that the account is a personal one? The Supreme Court has said that posts on a social media account labeled “personal” are presumed to be personal—but it has also made clear that evidence that an official is using the account for official purposes can overcome that presumption.

Courts are likely to evaluate whether your account reflects state action by looking to all of these factors, and perhaps others. If you want to maintain both a personal account and an official one, you should maintain a clear separation between the two.

Courts are likely to evaluate whether your account reflects state action by looking to the totality of the circumstances—that is, by looking to all of these factors, and perhaps others. If you want to maintain both a personal account and an official one, you should maintain a clear separation between the two.

Campaign accounts

One issue that arises in this area involves social media accounts used by candidates for office. If you are running for office but are not currently a government official, then your social media posts are not official for purposes of the First Amendment. But what if you continue to use your “campaign” account once you are elected? As with personal accounts, whether your posts are deemed to be official will depend on how you actually use your campaign account after you take office.

While posts on an account used solely as a campaign account are not subject to the First Amendment rules for public forums, an account containing both campaign and official posts may subject you to liability under the First Amendment if you block people or delete comments from official posts.

As with other kinds of personal accounts, in determining whether any posts on a purported campaign account are in fact official, a court is likely to look at the scope of the official’s authority to speak on behalf of the government, the nature of the posts to the account, whether government resources are used in connection with the account, and how the account is presented. A court may consider, for example, whether you use your campaign account to share your official decisions, to solicit input from the public about issues you are dealing with or decisions you have made as a public official, or to share information about how the public can participate in your official events.

2. Don’t block users or delete comments just because they criticize you.

If you use your account, or certain posts on your account, as an extension of your office, the First Amendment prohibits you from blocking people from the account—or suppressing their comments, or otherwise penalizing them—because of their viewpoints.

Multiple courts have held that social media accounts used for official purposes are “public forums” within the meaning of the First Amendment. A “public forum” is established when the government invites members of the public to speak in a space that the government owns or controls. Courts have held that the interactive features of social media accounts used for official purposes make those accounts public forums for First Amendment purposes because they enable members of the public to speak by, for example, replying to tweets or posting comments.

While there are different kinds of forums—including public forums in which all topics and speakers are allowed, and “limited” public forums, in which the government restricts which speakers can participate or which topics can be addressed—one rule that applies to all First Amendment forums is that the government may not stop people from speaking in them on the basis of their viewpoints. The rule against viewpoint discrimination ensures that people aren’t excluded from public discourse simply because their views are controversial or disagreeable to others. It also helps ensure that government officials don’t insulate themselves from the opinions of the people whom they are supposed to represent.

One related point is worth making here: Social media companies sometimes remove speech from their platforms that you, as a public official, couldn’t lawfully suppress or block. Because the companies are private actors, their conduct is generally not subject to First Amendment limitations. But your conduct is. In our view, the First Amendment bars public officials from directing or coercing platforms to take down speech that the officials couldn’t constitutionally take down themselves. If the First Amendment bars you from suppressing speech directly, it bars you from suppressing it indirectly, too.

Our advice: If you use your account for official purposes, don’t discriminate on the basis of viewpoint. It’s undemocratic and unconstitutional.

3. Have a social media policy, make it public, and follow it.

If you use your social media account for official purposes, you should adopt policies for the account and post those policies publicly. Posting your policies publicly will let your followers (and others) know how you intend to use the account, and how you hope others will use the forum established by the account. Your policies should explain:

• The general purposes you hope the account will serve;
• Any limitations on what users may post in the comment threads; and
• How you will address violations of those limitations.

Make your policies as clear as possible. Be especially careful with the words you use to describe any limitations on what users may post in the comment threads. Policies that use words or phrases susceptible to multiple interpretations don’t give users sufficient notice of what speech is allowed and what speech is disallowed, and those policies will be vulnerable to constitutional challenge. More on this below.

It’s important to understand that the rule against viewpoint discrimination applies not just to your policies but also to your enforcement of those policies. In other words, the First Amendment prohibits you from adopting a policy that discriminates on the basis of viewpoint, but it also prohibits you from enforcing a nondiscriminatory policy in a way that discriminates on the basis of viewpoint.

4. If you limit what your followers can post, the limits should be reasonable, viewpoint-neutral, and enforced consistently.

As a public official, you may be subjected to speech that is pointed, disparaging, critical, mocking, unfair, cheap, dishonest, false, abusive, outrageous, and offensive. You can of course call out this speech and respond to it. As a general matter, though, you can’t suppress it. For good reasons, the First Amendment provides very broad protection to political speech, and the courts have been especially protective of speech directed at public officials.

This said, there’s no question that some kinds of speech can be disruptive, can discourage civic participation that’s important to our democracy, and may make a public forum less useful than it might otherwise be. On social media, abuse and harassment are significant problems, especially for women and minorities. There are measures you can take to address some categories of speech that can be especially disruptive.

• You can disallow content that falls outside the protection of the First Amendment—for example, “true threats” and “obscenity.” These are narrow categories, but they are broad enough to encompass some forms of abusive and harassing speech. (“Abusive speech” and “harassing speech” are not themselves well-defined categories, and a prohibition that relied on those phrases would likely be struck down as unconstitutionally vague.)
• You can impose reasonable and viewpoint-neutral rules relating to the “time, place, or manner” of speech. Though no court has addressed the issue, we think that the First Amendment would permit you to place a reasonable limit on the number of times any given user can comment on one of your posts. A restriction like this might help ensure that a comment thread doesn’t get hijacked by a single speaker.
• You can impose limitations on the topics that can be addressed in the forum, so long as the limitations are viewpoint-neutral and reasonable in light of the purpose of the forum. We think that the First Amendment would allow you to restrict people from posting advertisements, promotions, and solicitations of commercial products and services. And we think it would allow you to require users to stay “on topic” on a post-by-post basis, so long as you enforce the limitation consistently and in a viewpoint-neutral way. An “on-topic” requirement may give you a tool for addressing at least some kinds of abusive and harassing speech.
• You may also be able to limit who can speak in the forum, so long as the limitations are viewpoint-neutral and reasonable in light of the purpose of the forum. For example, if you have a reliable way of differentiating constituents from others, the First Amendment might permit you to restrict the forum to your constituents.

We believe that the kinds of restrictions described above could be defended against a First Amendment challenge—assuming (yet again) that you enforce them consistently and in a viewpoint-neutral manner. Still, you should think carefully before adopting any of these restrictions. Consider whether the restriction you have in mind could suppress speech that is important, even if it’s inconvenient or offensive. Consider whether the restrictions would insulate you or your followers from views you should hear, or deprive you of information that you or your followers should know. Also consider whether you have the time and resources to enforce the restrictions. If you have millions of followers and no social media staff, it may not be feasible for you to enforce these kinds of restrictions consistently, and inconsistent enforcement will be vulnerable to First Amendment challenge.

5. If you moderate speech on your account, don’t forget due process.

If you restrict the kind of content that can be posted by others in the comment threads associated with your account, you should make clear in your publicly posted social media policy that you will notify users if you determine they have violated your policies. When you provide notice, the notice should: 

• Specify the provision of your policy you believe the user has violated;
• Include a copy of the content you believe violated the policy;
• If it isn’t readily apparent, explain why the content violated the provisions you’ve cited;
• Explain what measures you’ve taken, or will take, in response to the violation; and
• Explain how the user can challenge your decision.

The consequence for violating the terms of your social media use policy should be tailored to the violation, taking into account whether the user can correct the issue, and whether the user has violated the same policy in the past.

You should block users only as a last resort, because blocking prevents the blocked users from speaking at all in the forum. You should consider whether less severe restrictions—like “muting” users, or “hiding” replies, both of which are possible on X—would achieve what you want to accomplish. We recommend that, if you block people from your account for violation of your policies, you block them for only brief periods. You should block people for longer periods only if they violate your policies repeatedly.

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If you have questions about, or reactions to, anything we’ve written here, we’d like to hear from you. You can write to us at info@knightcolumbia.org.