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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFederal court rules public officials can't block critics on social media
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/07/28/federal_court_rules_public_officials_cannot_block_social_media_users.htmlprocon
(15,805 posts)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)The decisions reasoning can also be applied neatly to Trumps practice of blocking Twitter users with whom he disagrees. When Trump blocks Twitter users, they can still see his tweetsby, 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 Twitters 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.
Theres just one lingering issue with this comparison: It isnt 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 usersbut he doesnt 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. Trumps 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 Trumps 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
alittlelark
(18,888 posts)......on twitter
oxbow
(2,034 posts)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.