Sample posts in response to a recent parking ban
Source: City of Sanford Facebook page
By Lee Burnett
On the City of Sanford’s Facebook page, even an upbeat post on the most routine topic is sure to get snarky remarks.
Take the Nov. 12, 2025, post headlined “Be Part of the Holly Daze Parade!” accompanied by an overhead night-time shot of Central Park lit up by a Christmas tree.
“Lol what a great park now that 70 people sleep there but we can’t walk our dogs there,” shot back one poster.
“We don’t want to clean up the used needles that you guys refuse to do anything about or risk being jumped by the insanely violent homeless people that live there. Since the election has anything been done to change for the better? Or you guys still ignoring every single problem in town?” wrote another.
The thankless job of moderating content on the page falls to Megan Boisvert, the city’s communications director. She now has some tools to handle the task without violating free speech rights.
The City Council this week, unanimously adopted a policy on posting on the city’s page that authorizes Boisvert to disable comments only on strictly informational posts and limits her authority to hide or remove posts by strictly defining those categories of speech that may be shut down.
City Manager Steven Buck said the policy was drafted to be in alignment with recent court cases limiting posters’ free speech rights to certain kinds of speech. “We believe the policy is in compliance in all those regards,” he said. “In the absence of a policy … if you randomly choose to take a post down, that’s when you get in trouble.”
Buck asserted that social media posters are interfering with the city’s ability to keep citizens informed.
“We consistently have postings in there that rant on about overseas politics and such, when you simply put up a parking ban,” he said. “It’s that type of information that has a derogatory impact on the city’s ability to provide notification to the public.”
The new policy establishes two posting categories, each with its own rules. The city plans to disable all comments on posts that are strictly informational. These posts are limited to: emergency alerts and public safety notices, road closures and weather-related operations, public hearing notices and meeting agendas, job postings, and municipal holiday closures.
Buck explained: “By not creating a public forum, you’re not violating anyone’s rights to free speech or such under that.”
For all other posts, comments may be hidden or removed only if the posts contain the following content: profanity, obscene language, or slurs; threats, harassment, or personal attacks; discriminatory or hateful language; commercial advertising, spam, or repetitive postings; personal identifying information, illegal content or advocacy of illegal acts, or content wholly unrelated to the subject of the post.
The policy states: “Moderation shall be content-neutral and viewpoint-neutral. Comments expressing
criticism of city policies, officials, or operations shall not be removed unless they violate
these standards.”
Users may be blocked “if they repeatedly violate this policy after warning, or engage in threats, harassment, or unlawful conduct. All blocking actions shall be based on behavior, not viewpoint.”
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