EPPD blocks several Twitter users who voiced opinions

A local man says he is concerned about a lack of transparency after he claims he and several others were blocked from the El Paso Police Department’s Twitter account.

Several people, including Blogger Jaime Abeytia, Journalist Debbie Nathan, and several others tweeted they were blocked from the department’s account after voicing their opinions following Chief Greg Allen’s comments on the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.

Following a news conference July 8th for the slain Dallas police officers, Allen was asked about the movement and responded, “Black Lives Matter, as far as I’m concerned is a radical hate group and for that purpose alone I think the leadership of this country needs to look a little bit harder at that particular group. The consequences of what we saw in Dallas is due to their efforts.”

Diaz tells ABC-7 he tweeted the department: “@EPPolice there are people being blocked from your account. care to comment?”

Diaz says when he did not get a response, he tweeted the department again: “@EPPolice What criteria do you use to block followers from your account? I want to know as a concerned citizen. #transparency.”

Diaz said he was blocked from EPPD’s Twitter account within 30 minutes.

“It’s not like they ignored my comments, it’s not like they said, ‘I can’t answer your question right now or please refer to the city.’ It was a very active decision to block for a seemingly common and yet very legitimate question,” Diaz said.

The El Paso Police Department tweets breaking news information on anything from murders, to shootings and traffic collisions. Twitter users who follow its account are able to access that information on their feed. When a person is blocked, they can’t view those tweets once logged into their personal account. They must do a google search of a public account to view the tweets.

Diaz says that’s why being blocked is even more alarming. He says EPPD conveys important information to the public through its social media accounts.

“People rely on that information, and to block someone, their account, doesn’t inspire a sense of (protection).” Diaz said.

The police department referred ABC-7 to the City of El Paso. An official with the city wouldn’t say who manages the account and referred us to the social media policy listed on the city’s Facebook account. That policy states, “The City of El Paso will utilize social media for the purpose of promoting and sharing information about City of El Paso municipal services, programs, initiatives and events.” The policy further states, “All City-sponsored social media resources must be viewable by anyone, whether or not they choose to open an account with the social media provider. No hiding or restricting content.”

“It’s a great concern from a policy standpoint if the government is blocking citizens from access to public safety information,” Lyrissa Lidsky, Media Law Professor at the University of Florida, said.

Lidsky says the government’s presence on social media is a a gray area but depending on the purpose of an account, blocking may very well be against the law.

“The courts are just struggling, just beginning to struggle to decide what it means when a government blocks a citizen from an inherently interactive social media site controlled by the government. Is that censorship in violation of the first amendment or merely the government trying to control its message?” Lidsky said.

A city spokeswoman later sent Abc-7 a statement saying “EPPD staff from Public Affairs handles the social media.” The city could not say if anyone would be reprimanded stating, “we do not discuss personnel issues in public.”