On July 11, a free-speech group sued President Donald Trump for blocking users from his @realDonaldTrump Twitter account. The reason behind the lawsuit? Well, according to the group, the practice violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Brought by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and joined by a number of individual Twitter users, the lawsuit claims that Donald Trump blocked several accounts whose owners replied to his tweets with comments that criticized, mocked or disagreed with the president. One person that comes to mind is Stephen King, who is a vocal anti-Trump supporter on Twitter. When King found out that he had been blocked by Trump, not only was he confused but he also found it to be comical that the president of his country blocked his tweets.
According to the lawsuit, Trump’s blocking of the accounts amounted to an unconstitutional effort to contain the opposition. The suit added that because Trump turns to the network to make policy statements, his account now qualifies as a public forum, which means that the government is not allowed to exclude people on the basis of their views. In fact, in June, Sean Spicer, spokesman for the White House, even said that Trump’s tweets were considered “official statements by the president of the United States.”
In addition to Trump, the lawsuit has named Spicer and Dan Scavino, the White House director of social media, as defendants. The suit asks for the blocking to be considered unconstitutional and seeks an order to require the president to unblock users. As of right now, the White House has not commented on the issue.
For those new to the world of Twitter, when a user blocks you, you will not able to see or respond to the tweets from that account. When asked, one of the seven Twitter users involved in the suit, said in a statement: “Everyone being able to see the president’s tweets feels vital to democracy.” In addition, Papp, an author who has been a registered Republican for 10 years, said that he “felt a deep sense of unease” when he learned that he had been blocked.
Featured Image: Twitter
