FIRE calls on 20 Washington cities to end censorship of social media comments

SEATTLE, Oct. 29, 2026 — The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression today urged 20 Washington cities — from Seattle to Spokane Valley — to eliminate unconstitutional restrictions that regulate citizens’ comments on the cities’ social media pages.

The First Amendment protects citizens’ right to criticize government officials and otherwise speak their minds in public forums, including the comment sections of city-run social media pages opened for public discussion. Rules that unduly restrict this right are prevalent in the state of Washington. Violations of these rules can result in the deletion of comments or even citizens being blocked from their local government’s social media pages.

“The First Amendment doesn’t allow a city government to pick and choose which opinions people can express on its social media pages,” said FIRE’s Vice President of Public Advocacy Aaron Terr. “Washingtonians deserve to know what their fellow citizens think, and banning protected speech not only does them a disservice, but is unconstitutional.”

The government can restrict speech that falls in an unprotected category such as true threats. In certain circumstances, when a forum is limited to a specific public use, other restrictions may also be lawful, like a requirement that public comments during a city council meeting relate to city affairs. Still, even those rules must be reasonable — they cannot use vague language or unnecessarily ban large swaths of protected speech — and they cannot target speech based on viewpoint. 

But many comment rules for cities in Washington run afoul of these constitutional principles. For example:

• Seattle bans “personal attacks,” “insults,” and “support for or opposition to political campaigns.”
• The city of Kennewick bans all “political statements” and “religious statements.”
• Bellevue bans comments “deemed potentially libelous” (as opposed to actually libelous comments).
• “Offensive” language and “unsupported accusations” are prohibited on Federal Way’s social media pages. 
• “Random or unintelligible comments” are a no-go in Olympia.

Some rules flat-out discriminate based on viewpoint, such as the ban on statements from a religious perspective. Many others leave Washingtonians in the dark about what they’re allowed to say. After all, when does legitimate criticism become a “personal attack”? Is any criticism of a city policy or official a “political statement”? What language is “offensive”? There are no clear answers to these questions because the answers are subjective — they vary from person to person. And that makes it all too easy for city officials to use these vague rules to suppress criticism and just about any other speech they don’t like. 

Public discourse is vital to democracy, and when cities allow discussion on their social media sites they cannot turn around and ban whatever speech rubs them the wrong way. The remedy for objectionable speech is more speech, not forced silence. Washington’s cities can address criticisms and false information on their social media pages by responding to the comments, not by deleting them and blocking users.

When local governments fail to respect constituents’ First Amendment rights, they can expect to hear from FIRE. In 2023, a letter from FIRE successfully prompted Bristol, Tennessee, to eliminate its unconstitutional restrictions on public comments that were “disparaging” or “offensive.” And in 2024, following pressure from FIRE, the city of San Antonio, Texas, agreed to stop hiding constitutionally protected comments on its Animal Care Services Facebook page.

“As more Americans turn to social media to engage with their local governments, it’s increasingly important that those governments respect their constituents’ right to speak freely,” Terr said. “FIRE is happy to help city officials across Washington rework their policies to align with the Constitution, free of charge.”

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The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought — the most essential qualities of liberty. FIRE educates Americans about the importance of these inalienable rights, promotes a culture of respect for these rights, and provides the means to preserve them.

CONTACT

Katie Stalcup, Communications Campaign Manager, FIRE: 215-717-3473; media@fire.org