Marine Corps disables comments on Twitter post about women training at San Diego recruit depot

Technically they're not blocking people from commenting. People can retweet and share it on their pages and make comments about it still. They just disabled comments. They didn't actually block users. So it is a little different as stated in the article. It's not as clear cut as public officials who block specific users.

SFC Kelly Fuerhoff - is the Marine Corp a private or Government institution? They made a public announcement on a public platform. They do not get to make an announcement then disable public feedback because it might be offensive. If you do not want feedback, then do not make an announcement. It is that simple Kelly. A Government entity cannot shield itself from support or criticism on a public platform. It is a direct violation of everyones 1st amendment right. The Marine Corp is not a private company, nor does it have the protections on discourse that private entities have. A troll has just as much a right to express their views as anyone else.

This whole preventing people from speaking their views needs to end, because the people who are calling to silence, remove, and cancel others for views they disagree with is not really against the person speaking, but fear others will listen to what they have to say.

SSG Robert Perrotto - They're not preventing people from speaking their views by disabling comments, technically. There is a little more grey area here as stated in the article:

""Katie Fallow, a senior staffer with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University in New York, said disabling comments on Twitter is less clear cut of a First Amendment violation than when the Army and Navy esports teams blocked users.

“This is a harder First Amendment question than the one presented when public officials block critics from commenting on their official social media accounts,” Fallow said."
"“Choosing to limit replies only to the accounts mentioned in the post may be viewed as more like a private meeting with supporters, which the courts have held is not a public forum,” she added.""

The Knight First Amendment Institute is the same group that issued a letter to the Army and Navy for banning specific users from commenting on their esports Twitch channel. This person was involved in that case too and she's even saying that disabling comments on Twitter is "less clear cut of First Amendment violation" than when the Army and Navy esports blocked users on Twitch.

I'm just posting things out there about it and how it appears that disabling comments isn't exactly the same as blocking users. We will see if it goes to a court decision or not and let those who have more experience in this decide.

SFC Kelly Fuerhoff - while I agree with you about the courts - I am against this on principle. No agency of the Government should prevent, hinder, or infringe on anyones right to criticize, support, or disagree with what they are doing. We are allowing a Government agency control of discourse on a public platform. We are allowing our freedoms to be infringed upon on a mere technicality of social media which violates the spirit and letter of the 1st amendment.

Just a little harsh Michael. Remember these brothers of mine completed 13 weeks of Marine Corps Bootcamp, deployed or not. The Army with it's huge size had many more undeployed then any of the armed services. Just say-en. Keep the faith brother.