I Said Someone's Name in a Facebook Video. Harrison County Charged Me With Harassment.

Let me tell you exactly what I am charged with, because the truth is smaller and stranger than people assume.

I am facing a harassment charge in Harrison County. Not for a threat. Not for violence. Not for putting a hand on anyone. I said a person's name in a video on Facebook — and that person didn't like it. They called Harrison County, said I said something mean about them online, and the county charged me with harassment.

That's it. That's the case. Watch the video, then follow the logic with me, because once you see it, you can't un-see it.

I talk about people in power, by name. That's accountability.

I make videos. In them I name people — including government officials: judges, district attorneys, the justice of the peace, sheriffs, officers. I say their names and I talk about what they have done. That is not a crime. Naming a public official to question how they use public power is about the most protected speech there is in this country.

But set the officials aside for a second, because this charge isn't even a complicated case. It comes down to a simple question: is saying a person's name out loud, in a video, and saying something they don't like, something the police get to arrest you for?

Every platform already has the tools to deal with someone you don't want to hear

Here is what nobody who ran to Harrison County wants to admit: the platform already solved this.

If you don't want to see me, or hear your name from me, you have options — all built in, all one tap away:

• Change your settings. Turn off tags, filter who can interact with you, stop the notifications.
• Block me. You will never see another thing I post.
• Mute me. Unfollow me. Same result, quieter button.
• Report me. Facebook has a harassment report button sitting right there.

I am paying for a service that comes with every one of those measures. If someone doesn't like what I said, the remedy is in their own hands, on their own screen.

Don't take my word that these tools exist. Here they are on Facebook, one tap away — the Block button and the entire harassment report flow:

Facebook reviews harassment itself — and Facebook is about as liberal as it gets

This is the part that gives the whole thing away.

Facebook has a report button. Facebook reviews content for harassment and removes what crosses the line. And Facebook is one of the most liberal companies on the planet — not an outfit that bends over backwards to protect a pardoned January 6 defendant. If Facebook believed my video was harassment, it would be gone.

It is not gone. The most liberal company in the room looked at it and left it up.

So when did the police become the speech police?

That is the question Harrison County has to answer.

Someone heard their own name in a video they didn't like. They had a block button. A mute button. A report button. Settings. And a private company — a liberal one — that takes down real harassment and left mine alone.

So instead of using any of that, they picked up the phone, called the county, and the county filed a criminal charge. For saying a name. For saying something someone didn't want to hear.

When the government starts charging people because someone didn't enjoy hearing the truth about themselves, that is not protecting anyone from harm. Block, mute, and report protect people. A criminal charge protects whoever has the right phone number at the courthouse. Those are not the same thing, and everyone involved knows it.

I am never going to stop talking about this

This does not scare me quiet. It does the opposite. If saying a person's name in a video is now a crime in Harrison County, the public deserves to know that — so I am going to keep saying it, on the record, with my name attached.

And there is a remedy for officials who abuse their office that is older than any button on any app: the ballot box.

When election season comes, I am going to remember the people who did this and treated me like this. I intend to campaign against them — openly, lawfully, as is my right as an American citizen. Voting someone out over how they used their office is not harassment either. It is democracy.

If you don't want to hear your name from me, block me. If you think I crossed a line, report me. But you do not get to use a badge and a charge to make me stop telling the truth.

This is one more chapter in the record I am keeping out of Harrison County — alongside the bond fight that could put me back in a cell, the deadly-conduct charge where the gun never left the holster, and the credible threat I was warned about. I am keeping all of it in public, where it cannot be buried.

I'll see this through. And I'll see you at the ballot box.

— Ryan