Polk County Sheriff’s Office accused of social media censorship

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is coming under fire from a First Amendment group over its social media practices.That letter — sent this month by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (“FIRE”) — takes aim at the agency’s moderation of the PCSO and Polk County Animal Control social media pages.The policies reportedly allow the Sheriff’s Office to remove comments and block users for posting material deemed inappropriate, offensive, vulgar, hateful, abusive or defamatory. They also prohibit personal attacks, “trolling,” certain threats, off-topic comments, website links and copyrighted material belonging to someone else.FIRE argued that terms such as “offensive,” “inappropriate,” “vulgar,” “trolling” and “personal attack” are subjective and give moderators too much discretion. The organization said the rules could allow officials to remove comments simply because they criticize or offend government officials.The letter also says the policies may be too broad. FIRE noted th