Court records: Bevin blocks thousands of social media users


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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Newly released court records say Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin casts a wide net when blocking people on social media, citing reasons such as surpassing "a limit on idiocy" and "trolling."

The number of blocked accounts has ballooned from 600 to nearly 3,000 since two years ago. The Courier Journal reports the records are part of an ongoing federal lawsuit against Bevin by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. It sued on behalf of two Kentuckians who say being blocked violates their First Amendment rights.

Records say the Republican governor's staffers hid online comments including words such as womb, menstruation, uterus, booger, tax returns and Trump. They say Bevin also broadly ordered staffers in 2017 to "sweep out the trash" on Facebook. ACLU attorneys say screenshots of blocked comments show 90% were critical of Bevin.

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Information from: Courier Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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