07/01/2026
Not okay. Always Speak Up when you experience this type of censorship for our city officials.
Both Piedmont and Claremore, Ok have restricted citizens from commenting on their city-run social media.
Comments were allowed and often encouraged prior to data center objections by residents, as we’ve been told by multiple reports in both cities.
Claremore resident Ann, and her family, had originally been supportive of data centers due to promised revenue it should bring to the city.
However after learning that that revenue is temporary, with a sudden drop after building is complete, it didn’t add up.
“We focused on what we thought was the good of the community because we didn’t know at the time about the problems with data centers.”
Ann commented on the City Of Claremore page and explained the negative impacts of data centers, only to find her comments were later deleted.
When she returned again to ask why they were deleted, the city had turned off comments completely.
Piedmont Veteran, William, said he was disappointed to see the city had shut down comments. “They are essentially violating our right to Free Speech because they aren’t applying the standard equally.” He went on to explain “They don’t turn off comments when the people are happy, or giving praise. They are choosing which topics citizens can freely discuss on a taxpayer-owned forum. It’s not their personal social media account.”
We checked the Facebook accounts of both cities and found that they had turned off all comments.
There was no announcement or notice in advance of a change and nothing was provided to explain why.
The only change that occurred between the time comments were open and when the cities blocked them was the rising number of complaints about data centers in both municipalities.
In both cities, officials are under heavy scrutiny as they attempt to force data centers into city areas, despite clear objections by the majority. Both cities have limited or prevented residents from speaking at public meetings- Claremore had a resident arrested for speaking 5 seconds over his 3 minutes.
Complaints from “data center” municipalities in Oklahoma have been pouring in and most are concerning the silencing of residents.
We wonder how City Council members in cities all over Oklahoma would react if citizens limited their speaking time to 3 minutes. Would it be a sufficient amount of time to convey a concern? Explain an issue? Likely not. 3 minutes is trivial and patronizing. It doesn’t scream “We are listening to those we serve.”
Turning comments off of a previously accessible social media page makes a solid point - they do not care to hear taxpayers voices.
