A person with a user account under a pseudonym on X (formerly Twitter) reported the consulate for blocking them, as the authority, through the blocking, prevented them from reading official messages to the public without providing either an explanation or a written decision.
According to the consulate general, the account was blocked in January 2023 after the user repeatedly violated the rules through posts and comments whose content could be perceived as offensive and by not maintaining a respectful tone.
Since the person who made the complaint did not confirm that it was their account that was blocked, the Parliamentary Ombudsman (JO) expresses itself in general terms about an authority's blocking of a user.
The JO writes in its decision that there are usually several ways to contact an authority and access information, and that the blocked person can express their opinions elsewhere.
"A blocking can therefore, as a starting point, not be considered an unlawful restriction of the individual's freedom of expression or information or of their right to access public documents and information," writes the JO.
