NY: Federal District Court grants injunction against the state blocking social media
A group of people forced to register as sex offenders in New York have been granted a preliminary injunction by a Federal District Court in New York against the NY State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, which sought to ban these individual’s access to social medial.
The court found that, “New York’s attempt to advance this interest via blanket restrictions cannot be squared with the significant freedom of speech rights at stake.”
The court said that any ban on social media must be individualized and cannot be applied as a one-size-fits-all restriction that’s applied to everyone classified as a sex offender.
The memorandum and order can be read here: NY Social Media Decision
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Sure the state can’t block you, but the state contacts farcebook and the others, and asked them to delete you.
Same effect.
https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/44E4BD6B382C2C5985257B8E004F70A6/$file/11-5344-1441731.pdf
“brings to mind the common sense view in the infamous duck test. See, e.g., Dole v. Williams Enterprises, Inc., 876 F.2d 186, 188n.2(D.C. Cir. 1989) (adopting the “now-infamous ‘duck-test,’ dressed up in appropriate judicial garb: ‘WHEREAS it looks like a duck, and WHEREAS it walks like a duck, and WHEREAS it quacks like a duck, WE THEREFORE HOLD that it is a duck.’”).”
Yeah but the social media platforms themselves ban registered persons because they have internal software to compare your name and pictures to the registry. Even if you use a fake name to sign up, DO NOT post a pic of yourself.
This being so. Could this have any impact on facebooks policy of a blanket ban on anyone on the registry.
Unlikely
Facebook is a privately owned company and we are not a protected class therefore they and and just about anyone else are allowed to openly discriminate when it comes to registrants
Good for them
Here’s the problem. Facebook, Instagram and various other social media sites have Terms of Service which very clearly state sex offenders are not permitted on the platform and if found, are removed.
I was on Facebook for over 12 years without an issue and one day I woke up to an email stating my account was removed because I violated their TOS. There is no way to get the companies to change their TOS to allow us on their platforms because they are a private company.
Effectively I was “Thanos-ed” from the site. My wife’s account just shows she’s in a relationship but no reference as to what kind. I lost connections to a number of groups which I was very active in for hobbies I’m in involved with and put in a very difficult position of now having to disclose to a slew of new people why I was removed.
For me it has been a real punch in the gut because it leaves me feeling more isolated.
These platforms have become far more than a company. They are a way to staying in touch with people you genuinely care about and sometimes it’s the only way of interacting with other people. It would be nice if there was a way to have some ability to overcome something I did 22 years ago.
Terms of service means nothing ask those of us who were entrapped in stings on adult dating sites where they specifically say 18 years of age or above. Honestly that’s just for the public to feel good those sites could post absolutely nothing about sex offenders not being allowed on them and still kick you off
The state of florida blocked me from using the internet and using any social media on that internet for the entire 10 years of the probation I was sentenced to.
You were on paper totally different set of rules
That’s what this article is about.