Members of the Brooklyn Council are said to be preventing locals from creating posts they dislike on their social media pages. And she even dared one critic to take her to court.
Democrat socialist Emily Gallagher of Green Point has secretly removed critical or full comments or has completely restricted her interactions with her political media pages, as long as certain users are in office.
Experts say that may be the first violation of amendments as a civil servant.
“The parallel between the way she runs theocracy, the way she runs theocracy, and the beginning of fascism is that it’s the correctness of money,” Shannon Phipps, founder of the Berry Street Alliance, told the Post.
Phipps said he was blocked from Gallagher’s Instagram account since June 2024 after years of revealing the city’s Open Street Program, supported by council members.
Phipps said he noticed that his reply appears to have disappeared shortly after he posted in response to Gallagher’s tweet.
Other neighbors have filed similar claims over the past few months. He claims he is being punished for criticizing Gallagher’s policies and simply asking him to take action on issues of neighborhoods.
Gallagher’s public Instagram page on Thursday showed minimal negative comments. Various posts showed that there are many comments that do not live under the photos.
In this post, we also saw various screenshots showing Gallagher restricting several users from interacting directly with her on social media.
“People are blocked for making political criticisms about her, or if you’re posting something about a political issue that you want her to pay attention to, that’s what it is. It’s real,” Phipps said.
Dennis Meyerson, who has lived nearby for over 20 years, first noticed that she was restricted to commenting on Gallagher’s Instagram posts in 2021.
Myerson has been critical of Gallagher’s support for McGuinness Bike Lane, and has called for politicians to intervene in plans to turn 300 free parking on Meeker Avenue into a metered spot.
“I commented on her post and then my comments disappeared. It had a direct connection to the neighbors, but she always deleted the comments,” Meyerson said.
Brooklynite called out Gallagher for censoring his post, leaving only the free ones, but politicians sued the innocent screenshots shared with the Post Show.
Even more bravely, the Rochester transplant dares Meyerson to take her complaints to court, saying, “Please feel free to bring them to court. But that was not intentional. But this tactic of repeatedly commenting on every post with a completely inaccurate statement is pretty frustrating!”
“That’s her attitude,” Myerson retorted.
“She doesn’t handle being a local politician very well,” Meyerson said. “She’s not very mature in the position to be like a neighbourhood diplomat.”
“It’s very frustrating and not democratic. They claim it is. It’s definitely not. It doesn’t give faith in local governments.”
Censorship is even worse as Gallagher doesn’t respond to constituent emails and her office spends limited time. Both Phipps and Meyerson added that only people with a mirroring perspective get the callback.
When asked for comment, Gallagher refused to approve the censorship allegations, but said she provided many real-life opportunities for her members to connect.
“Our office takes accessibility and availability very seriously,” she said in a statement. “We hold regular in-person events and access to civil servants, telephone lines and email. We have all day conversations with people who agree with us and those who don’t.”
If it turns out that Gallagher has deleted or restricted comments, there is no doubt that she will act in a clear violation of the initial amendment, as her account is clearly marked for office, due to her account being clearly marked for duties.
“Social media pages are created to allow for communication exchanges with constituents. We can’t block people because we don’t like the message,” Peress says.
Perez pointed to a similar case filed against President Trump in 2018, resulting in a federal judge ruling that the president could not stop critics from his social media pages. A second lawsuit was filed in 2020, but the Supreme Court ultimately deleted it as the lawsuit was dragged down until Trump left his position.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has also been hit by several civil lawsuits by those who allegedly had her blocked.
But even cyberbullying doesn’t make excuses to restrain freedom of speech, Perez said.
“If you were doing this as part of your job as a civil servant, I can’t think of a case where you can allow some people to come and go, and you can’t forgive others. You’re basically discriminating against the message. You can’t do that,” Perez said.
Phipps is considering taking legal action against Gallagher.
Censorship was a particularly intense hit for civic leaders whose father moved from Iran to the United States in the late ’70s, seeking the very freedom that Gallagher accused of suppressing Gallagher.
“He left us in a very violent situation where half of our family were killed. People were protesting freely. They lost their lives. They disappeared and were being oppressed… I was in a confused state since I was born and I couldn’t even return to the country,” Phipps explained.
“There is no freedom of speech, there is no freedom of press, there is no freedom to engage in politics. It is theocratic politics. It is all through the eyes of God.
