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Federal court rules public officials can't block critics on social media (Original Post) Lotusflower70 Jul 2017 OP
That would apply to Trump also, right? procon Jul 2017 #1
Maybe question everything Jul 2017 #4
lil donnie won't like that - might have to kick and scream.... alittlelark Jul 2017 #2
Is it going to come down to twitter vs. trump? oxbow Jul 2017 #3

procon

(15,805 posts)
1. That would apply to Trump also, right?
Fri Jul 28, 2017, 09:09 PM
Jul 2017

So he'll have to unblock all the journalists and other people who asked critical questions, fact checked his lies, and criticized him... holding my breath...

question everything

(47,425 posts)
4. Maybe
Sat Jul 29, 2017, 11:35 PM
Jul 2017

The decision’s reasoning can also be applied neatly to Trump’s practice of blocking Twitter users with whom he disagrees. When Trump blocks Twitter users, they can still see his tweets—by, for instance, viewing them in an incognito window. But they cannot engage directly with his tweets, at least not without resorting to an intricate and unreliable workaround. (Knight mentions “a third-party application” that can “mitigate the implications of the block,” but it is “burdensome” and seems to rely “on a temporary glitch in Twitter’s interface.”) This inability to respond to Trump may seem to present only a minor burden on speech. But it poses a real First Amendment problem nonetheless, inflicting a potentially unconstitutional burden on protected political speech.

There’s just one lingering issue with this comparison: It isn’t clear whether Trump intends his personal Twitter page to function as a public forum the way Randall did. (Trump has a presidential account, @POTUS, from which he does not block users—but he doesn’t use it for interesting communications.) Public officials have more latitude to censor expression in personal, private forums than they do in forums that they use to speak in their official capacity. Trump’s lawyers will almost certainly argue that his personal Twitter feed is a private forum, not a government project.

But that argument will likely fail. As Trump’s recent tweets banning transgender military service demonstrate, the president uses Twitter not just to convey official policy but also for lawmaking. This habit would seem to turn his feed into a quintessential public forum. And so, under the First Amendment, he lacks the power to block those users who tweet their discontent at @realDonaldTrump.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/07/28/federal_court_rules_public_officials_cannot_block_social_media_users.html

oxbow

(2,034 posts)
3. Is it going to come down to twitter vs. trump?
Fri Jul 28, 2017, 10:31 PM
Jul 2017

Im sure the govt will appeal but once the final verdict comes down, if 2 scoops won't unblock his critics, then twitter might have to force his hand.

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