Thurmont approves policy that could restrict comments on town's Facebook page

Mar. 29—The Thurmont Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a social media policy that could limit a town Facebook page to "information only."

The ability to comment on posts could be disabled.

The town created this framework, but still has to decide how and whether to use it.

Thurmont has multiple Facebook pages, including one for the police department and one for its Main Street organization. Town officials indicated on Tuesday that they are likely to only apply restrictions in the new policy to the main Facebook page for the town government.

Town officials said they would not restrict comments on Facebook until after hearing feedback from the public and determining which accounts to apply the restriction to.

Commissioners Bill Buehrer, Wayne Hooper, Wes Hamrick and Bill Blakeslee all voted to approve the policy.

Mayor John Kinnaird arrived late to Tuesday's meeting and did not vote on that issue. In February, however, Kinnaird said he requested a policy after years of the town's Facebook page receiving what he described as vulgar comments.

In a discussion before the vote, Hooper said the town's Main Street Thurmont Facebook page, which posts about business activities and community events, and its police department page would likely not be included.

Hooper said both of those entities welcome comments on their pages.

Under the policy, any of Thurmont's social media pages could be classified "social media accounts intended to disseminate information," disallowing any comments on the account's posts.

The policy doesn't specify particular social media platforms, but the town generally only uses Facebook.

Town attorney Clark Adams said that by turning off comments on posts, the town would not be violating the First Amendment since it is not restricting a forum for discussion. Instead, the account would simply provide announcements and information.

"And because you are not making a forum for comment," Clark said, "you don't have to allow comment, and therefore you don't have to moderate those comments and First Amendment protections do not apply."

The policy's other possible social media account classification is "social media accounts intended to invite discussion." With that classification, Main Street Thurmont could continue to allow comments.

The comments, however, would have to abide by the policy's standards for appropriate content.

Comments that promote discrimination or threats of violence, for example, could be removed.

A town employee would have to notify the commenter of the removal and catalogue the comment before removing it.

Hooper and Thurmont Chief Administrative Officer Jim Humerick said the policy is not intended to stifle public input on town affairs, but instead redirect that input to town meetings and town employees.

"I have had some people ask me, 'Well, why are you cutting out all of the comments?' We're not," Hooper said. "It's just for the ones that we want to send information out to the public. It is what it is, the way of the world now."

Humerick said he would prefer that comments be expressed where they can do the most good — at the town office through phone calls, emails or in-person visits.

"It's not beneficial or effective to get into a debate on a social media platform," Humerick said. "We're not attempting to restrict comments, with the exception of where the comments can be made at and where they're appropriate to be made at."

There weren't any public comments about the policy during Tuesday's meeting. Hooper said there would be future opportunities for feedback when officials determine how to classify town accounts.