Tennessee Town Sparks Free Speech Debate After Banning Negative Online Comments

A new social networking policy just approved by a small Tennessee town has some questioning if the move infringes on the First Amendment.

South Pittsburg, on the banks of the Tennessee River, is a town of just over 3,100 people. At the town's most recent monthly meeting on December 9, the city council approved a measure that would restrict any employee, elected official, contractor or person doing business with the city from posting negative comments about South Pittsburg on Facebook or Twitter.

They are calling it an "all-inclusive" social media policy. However, it specifically excludes any posts that could be considered negative or critical of the town, its policies or the people running South Pittsburg.

According to a published report in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, all city employees will have to sign a document that acknowledges the policy. But the sweeping new action does not stop with city employees. The restriction also applies to volunteers, appointed or elected officials, vendors and any person who is acting in an official capacity for South Pittsburg. There are currently no criminal penalties attached to the new rule, but employees can be reprimanded.

Comments like the one below started showing up on Twitter after news of the policy started circling on the Internet:

South Pittsburg is armpit of TN. It's this awful place that saps the life from your body. Horrible, horrible. Do not visit! @MarionCountyTN

— John (@ExFoxNewsFan) December 16, 2014

A search of the past few months revealed no angry tweets mentioning South Pittsburg. If they existed prior to the new policy, perhaps they were removed.

TheBlaze attempted to contact Mayor Jane Dawkins, city attorney Billy Gouger and all five city commissioners for comment. We were initially told the mayor was out for the day and referred to another commissioner, Sammy Burrows. At press time, Burrows had not returned our calls or requests for a copy of the minutes from the recent meeting.

Efforts to speak with the city attorney about the limiting nature of the new policy were also unsuccessful. However, Gouger had previously been quoted, stating, "It does, to some extent, limit your ability to criticize or comment in an official capacity."

When we made contact with Commissioner Jeff Powers and asked for a comment on the new policy, Power was abrupt, stating, "No comment."  Adding, "There is no issue."

The Times Free Press managed to get Powers to respond a day earlier. When asked if the policy was blocking people from posting on social media, Powers rejected that thinking, telling the paper, "Well, you can. Just not [anything] that sheds a negative light on any person, entity, board or things of that nature."

He followed up with, "You can go ahead and post all you want."

The remaining three commissioners, Ronnie Lancaster, Jimmy Wigfall and the only dissenting vote, Paul Don King, were contacted at their home numbers. Not one has returned the calls or responded to our request.

Do you think the South Pittsburg policy is fair or is it restricting free speech? We invite you to take our Blaze poll and post your comments below.

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Follow Mike Opelka (@Stuntbrain) on Twitter.