Why city has no Facebook page

While t h e r e ’ s n o official count, it’s safe to say t h e r e a r e a t on of unoff i c i a l L a k e Worth Faceb o o k p a g e s wh e r e r e s i - dents opine, share information, grouse, vent and yes, post funny memes.

There’s Lake Worth Local, which has more than 5,000 members. Lake Worth Life and Lake Worth Voice are other influential pages, each with more than 3,000 members.

For those who simply want to talk about the good news in the city, there’s Positively Lake Worth. There are also pages ranging from downtown development to lost pets.

You get the point. There’s no shortage of Facebook pages for residents to express themselves.

However, there is no official Lake Worth Facebook page the city manages. Boca Raton has one. So does Jupiter and Wellington. Boynton Beach also has a Facebook police page.

Lake Worth has been talking about starting a page for some Kevin D. Thompson time. In July 2015, a city staffer told me an official Facebook page was scheduled for October of that year.

Lake Worth finally entered the Digital Age by launching a Twitter account two years ago, joining West Palm Beach, Wellington and Palm Beach Gardens. But still no Facebook page. The reason? Ben Kerr, a city spokesman, said several cities have tested a Facebook page and there have been a few legal issues.

“We can’t limit comments on posts and anyone can comment,” Kerr said. “What has happened in other cities, people have (posted) some truly horrific things, racist, sexist comments and the city deleted them and those people have sued for obstructing their freedom of speech.”

City Attorney Glen Torcivia said that’s what happened in Hawaii where a city is being sued over First Amendment r i g h t s f o r a p o s t t h a t wa s deleted. The city made a motion to dismiss, but the court denied that request.

The case is now in federal court, Torcivia said.

The case law on Facebook i s still developing, Torcivia pointed out. Dangerous liability remains.

“Let’s say the cit y starts a Facebook page and puts up rules that says, ‘No pornography’ and then the city tries to take down a post it considers pornographic,” Torcivia said. “That person can sue and say it’s not pornographic. At this point, I’d advise the city to be conservative and to see how the case law evolves.”

While Lake Worth residents aren’t shy about sharing their opinions, most do it in a respectful, intelligent manner, without resorting to name-calling or using the kind of four-letter words I can’t print in a family newspaper.

But there are those who don’t follow that protocol. Clearly, those are the people the city is worried about.