Ga. Rep. blocked people she didn’t agree with on Facebook; federal judge says she has to stop

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Georgia Representative Ginny Ehrhart has to stop blocking people from her official government Facebook page.

Ehrhart, a Powder Springs Republican who represents part of Cobb County, allegedly removed comments and blocked people she did not agree with from her Facebook page, according to the judge’s ruling.

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In 2020, Biedermann, who used the pseudonym Tom Alfred online, filed a lawsuit against Ehrhart claiming she was infringing on his First Amendment right to free speech.

Biedermann testified that he commented on a post Ehrhart made in October 2019 about her bill that would criminalize some surgeries on transgender children.

He says his comment, which opposed Ehrhart’s bill, was removed from the post. He says that over the next few days, several others of his comments were removed.

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Biedermann says he was then blocked from interacting with her Facebook page.

Federal judge J.P. Boulee’s ruling goes on to say that there are at least 60 people who have been blocked by Ehrhart, some of whom are political rivals who acknowledge her use of social media blocking. Those 60 people have congregated into a group called #BlockedByGinny.

Boulee ruled that Ehrhart would have to stop “unconstitutional viewpoint-based blocking” and to restore Biedermann’s access to her Facebook page.

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