Strict Scrutiny & Facebook Fishing Groups
In this article from the other day “Fish Kill – Agency Claims & Push Back by Local Anglers – Martinez & Ferguson Lakes” I had some comments about angler push back and some possible censorship by AZGFD on their FishAZ page about water conditions on the lower Colorado River.
This was their response
Arizona Game & Fish Department
Hi Bob La Londe! Posts might be removed or not appear for a few reasons. This can happen if they don’t follow our group rules (outlined here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fishaz/about), if the member hasn’t been approved yet, or if their join request was denied due to following rules or answering the screening questions. We appreciate your understanding!
I was a little stunned. Instead of addressing the pushback they just defended their censorship at best implying it might have been accidental or automatic based on how Facebook groups work. Make no mistake FishAz is a government run public forum on Facebook. They did not deny censoring or deleting the posts of those people. Just played games and claimed “rules.” Now these are not rules with force of law, but just group rules they made up. Maybe holding people to a standard of good behavior is not unreasonable in what they hope is a family friendly group for general participation, but in the context of government censorship of criticism of a government agency on a public forum it is 100% unacceptable.
I thought about it for a little while and chose to wait long enough not to respond in anger, but I did respond. Oh, I am angry, but I am contemplatively angry. Not irrationally angry. This was my response.
Bob La Londe
Arizona Game & Fish Department please understand that in particular, on a government sponsored page or group, criticism of government is very protected speech constitutionally and falls under strict scrutiny judicially. Group rules, like policies, can not supersede or trump law or constitutional judicial precedent. There have been a few precedents set right here in Arizona in this regard.
One angler and a friend who had some pushback against their original public informational post has been a long-time member of that group and they are not the type to use vulgarity or profanity in a public forum. Not even justifiably. I’ve known them personally for nearly 20 years and it’s just not who they are. Their account of having their posts require approval and then being deleted without ever appearing does not mesh well with the evasive response I copied above. I’m more likely to believe my longtime friend than an unknown person posting with anonymity from behind a government agency name.
Who would have thought talking about a fish kill and fishing would lead to public commentary on free speech, the right to criticize governement, and the wrong of government censorship of that criticism.
PLEASE AZGFD live up to your reputation as one of the better wildlife management agencies in America.