Social Media Policy
Effective February 3, 2022
Generally, the Congressman accepts and solicits feedback and posts from constituents and other United States citizens, irrespective of content or viewpoint and regardless of whether those posts are critical or supportive of the Congressman, except for those within the ambit of this policy regarding prohibited posts.
Prohibited posts: the Congressman prohibits, and may block posters, whose posts are true and immediate threats of physical harm to any person, contain statements previously found by a court of law to be defamatory, or are obscene as narrowly defined by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Congressman recognizes that these are limited categorical exemptions and that many types of speech that may be crude or offensive to some readers do not fall within these exemptions. Obscenity includes materials that are obscene, using the following standards: (1) whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the post, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest (2) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct, and (3) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. As a general matter, any pornographic materials, including photographs that depict minors in a sexual manner, fall within this standard.
Posters blocked for violating these standards may appeal by sending a request within 30 days of any such blocking to: The Office of Congressman Thomas Massie 2453 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, including the username/handle, the post that led to the blocking, and the date and time of the post. If the poster does not know the basis for the blocking, they may send a request to the same address for clarification on the violating posts. After 30 days, posters who have been blocked may request to be unblocked by sending a request to the same address. In any of these events, we will review the post that ran afoul of this policy and determine whether a violation occurred, if the violation has been removed or amended, and whether any blocking should continue and if so, for how long. In addition, we reserve the right to request proof of U.S. citizenship or residency if an account is requesting to be unblocked
