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from the silence-all-disagreement-and-only-agreement-will-be-seen dept.
Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute has filed a lawsuit against President Trump for blocking seven users on Twitter, claiming that the action violates the users' First Amendment right to participate in a public political forum:
The institute filed suit today on behalf of seven Twitter users who were blocked by the president, which prevents them from seeing or replying to his tweets. It threatened legal action in a letter to Trump in June, and now "asks the court to declare that the viewpoint-based blocking of people from the @realDonaldTrump account is unconstitutional."
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Southern District of New York, elaborates on the Knight Institute's earlier letter. It contends that Trump's Twitter account is a public political forum where citizens have a First Amendment right to speak. Under this theory, blocking users impedes their right to participate in a political conversation and stops them from viewing official government communication. Therefore, if Trump blocks people for criticizing his political viewpoints, he'd be doing the equivalent of kicking them out of a digital town hall.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @03:40PM (5 children)
It means that the government isn't allowed to block you from writing in a newspaper. The President is part of the government. The suit is about whether the President is allowed to block people from writing in response to his messages on Twitter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @04:25PM
Easy now, you've poked the overstuffed teddy bears. It is odd how easily they fall over themselves defending such an asshat.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday July 12 2017, @04:43PM (3 children)
If you write a letter to the editor, is the newspaper required to publish it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @06:07PM
No but is the president allowed to bar you from writing the letter?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 12 2017, @06:12PM (1 child)
Obviously the editor isn't required to publish it, but like the OP's analogy, yours has little to do with the topic.
If the President, Congress, or a government agency directed a newspaper editor not to publish my letters, that would be analogous.
If Hillary Clinton had gotten elected and she tried to block people from commenting on her social media channels, you'd be up in arms. Literally. But it's your guy so you defend him.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday July 12 2017, @11:26PM
No. First, nothing prevents a blocked user from commenting on Trump tweets. They can view them while logged out, can quote them, screenshot them, and publish their own comments. Twitter is the platform and all but the banned are free to publish and comment almost anything they want.
Do I think it looks petty and small for Trump to ban people? Yes I do. But my opinion would be the same for HRC, Trump, or b00bl0v3r. It just doesn't feel unconstitutional.
So if the letter to the editor analogy is out, we're back to sending a letter to the president. As the recipient, he can ignore whatever he wants to (whether wise or not is a different question).
Lastly, Trump's not my guy. Both he and HRC were shit candidates and I didn't vote for either one.