The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to remind government officials who use social media they have obligations to observe the First Amendment when using their official social media accounts.

The EFF has partnered with Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and Woodhull Freedom Foundation to file a brief calling on the Supreme Court to prohibit government officials using social media in an official capacity from blocking people who disagree with them, according to a June 30 news release. EFF argues this violates the first Amendment right of U.S. citizens to receive and respond to government communications.

“Social media has become an essential part of modern civic engagement,” EFF Civil Liberties Director David Greene said in the release. “Public officials and agencies use social media for a wide variety of governmental functions, including providing the public with critical public safety information. Our First Amendment rights to get this information and to interact with our public officials shouldn’t be so easily negated by our officials using preexisting ‘personal’ accounts rather than accounts specific to the public office.”

With the use of social media by government officials and agencies now routine, courts are trying to determine what is subject to First Amendment limitations and whether government officials and entities should be allowed to block people whose views they don't agree with, the release reported.

EFF and its partners argue Justices should rule courts must establish a testing method to determine if a government official's use of social media is a state action subject to the First Amendment, according to the release. If the use of social media determined to be a state action, the brief asserts that officials cannot block views just because they disagree with them.

“We are asking the Court to find that the ultimate test is how an account is used. If officials choose to mix government and nongovernment content on their account, they must accept the First Amendment obligations that go with using their account for governmental purposes,” EFF Senior Staff Attorney Sophia Cope said in the release.