Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday May 25 2018, @03:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the rejection-rejected dept.

President Trump's practice of blocking Twitter users who are critical of him from seeing his posts on the social media platform violates the First Amendment, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled on Wednesday.

The ruling came in a case brought by seven Twitter users who had been blocked by the @realDonaldTrump account after they criticized the president.

The plaintiffs, who were joined in the suit by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, claimed that Mr. Trump's Twitter feed is an official government account and that blocking users from following it was a violation of their First Amendment rights.

In her ruling, Federal District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald wrote of the plaintiffs that "the speech in which they seek to engage is protected by the First Amendment" and that Mr. Trump and Dan Scavino, the White House social media director, "exert governmental control over certain aspects of the @realDonaldTrump account."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/business/media/trump-twitter-block.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

See also: http://time.com/4808270/sean-spicer-donald-trump-twitter-statements/:

When asked at a press briefing whether Trump's tweets qualify as official statements on behalf of the White House, Spicer said that he "is the President of the United States, so they're considered official statements by the President of the United States."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by ilsa on Friday May 25 2018, @04:51PM (3 children)

    by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 25 2018, @04:51PM (#684081)

    Trump isn't just Trump. He's the president. That means any channel he uses for communicating with the public in the capacity of president, becomes an "official" channel, whether he likes it or not.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @10:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25 2018, @10:47PM (#684251)

    It sounds like you think the president doesn't have a right to deny somebody the right to attend a press conference in person.

    No, that is absurd. People can hear about it from other people.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @12:02AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @12:02AM (#684271)

    Ah all good points. Is the Obama administration going to turn over those 30,000 emails any time soon?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @08:26PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @08:26PM (#684653)

      Emails != twitter

      Not judging emails one way or another, just a bad comparison.