Several prominent state politicians in New York blocked followers on social media.
New York State Sen. Julia Salazar, Councilmen Rafael Salamanca Jr., and Ari Kagan are some of the elected officials who blocked followers, even constituents, from their accounts.
The New York Post reported that City Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan blocked a constituent after she commented on the poor turnout at her vigil for two slain police officers.
One Twitter user named @AlBeachGuy told The Post he was blocked last year from Jordan’s personal account.
“My take is that if they’re going to tweet out their position on government policies and their political opinions on their personal accounts then the public should be able to respond to them,” he said.
A city employee who used the Twitter handle @KittyCatC_007 said Kagan blocked him shortly after he took office.
“He in particular should know that you can’t or shouldn’t silence somebody for their point of view,” the Twitter user said in reference to Kagan’s emigration from Belarus.
The user said he tweeted to Kagan’s personal account last year when he mentioned Kagan’s past in the Soviet Union. Kagan was once a member of the Communist party but said he left the party in 1991.
Last week, he referred to Kagan as “Comrade General Secretary” in a tweet to Kagan’s official account.
For his part, Kagan implied that politicians should be able to block “trolls” from their personal accounts. The personal account mostly retweets tweets from his government account.
“He’s clearly a troll,” Kagan told The Post. “I should keep this person even on my personal account?”
Bronx resident Lattina Brown said Salamanca blocked her from his official Facebook page and his personal Twitter account.
“It is his responsibility to hear the concerns from the constituents of what’s going on in the community,” Brown said of Salamanca.
Salamanca said his official Twitter account was open to everyone but argued on his personal account “I’m allowed to block whoever I choose.”
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