{"id":4273,"date":"2026-07-09T23:36:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=4273"},"modified":"2026-07-09T23:36:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:36:48","slug":"can-nc-censor-online-criticism-from-employees-national-guard-settlement-tests-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=4273","title":{"rendered":"Can NC censor online criticism from employees? National Guard settlement tests waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n

Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

The North Carolina National Guard reached a settlement Tuesday with a 23-year veteran whom it had banned from its official social media page after he criticized the Guard\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

Read more An old Cary auto shop will be revived as a new restaurant hot spot. Peek inside<\/a><\/p>\n

The veteran, Timothy Stanhope of Cumberland County, sued his former employer in federal court last year, arguing that the Guard was violating his First Amendment rights by deleting his posts and blocking him from the Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Under the proposed settlement<\/a> \u2014 which still must be approved by a judge \u2014 the Guard agrees to rescind Stanhope\u2019s ban, restore his deleted posts and amend its social media policy to ensure that similar censorship efforts do not occur in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter serving my country for 23 years, I know that constitutional rights are not optional,\u201d Stanhope said in a statement. \u201cThe right to speak freely includes the right to criticize the government, and that right doesn\u2019t disappear when the conversation moves online. Officials don\u2019t get to pick and choose which opinions are allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the settlement only applies to the National Guard, it could create a precedent for state employees to cite in similar cases of alleged censorship.<\/p>\n

Stanhope\u2019s lawsuit<\/a> lists a variety of social media posts that he said led to retaliation from the Guard.<\/p>\n

In 2023, while serving in the Guard, he commented on a post about an officer\u2019s promotion with a photo of the officer\u2019s mugshot and a link to an article about his recent arrest for driving under the influence. Stanhope\u2019s suit says the comment \u201cwas intended to draw attention to the NCNG promoting officers of questionable character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more NC gives up on its effort to regularly replace vehicle license plates<\/a><\/p>\n

He also made posts criticizing the quality of the living accommodations and food provided to National Guard members, which he referred to as \u201cthird world conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon retiring from the Guard, Stanhope found that he had been blocked from the official Facebook page and that some of his comments and posts had been deleted or hidden.<\/p>\n

At the time, the Guard\u2019s social media agreement stated that \u201cinappropriate comments may be deleted at the sole discretion of the Department of Defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Tuesday\u2019s settlement, that language would be removed from the policy and replaced with the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cPosts will not be removed, hidden, or deleted, and users will not be banned or blocked, based on the viewpoint expressed in any comments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more More storms possible in the Triangle after rain dumps inches during drought<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The North Carolina National Guard agreed to rescind a veteran's ban, restore deleted Facebook posts and update its social media policy to protect free speech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nCan NC censor online criticism from employees? 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