President Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to block him on Twitter again.
In 2018, it was ruled that Mr. Trump cannot block other users on the social media app because the messages are “governing in nature” and thus part of a public forum.
As such, blocking users “as a result of the political views they have expressed is indispensable under the First Amendment”, the judge ruled at the time.
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While private companies simply are not bound by the First Amendment, the de facto nature of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook as public spaces has led to cumbersome legislation regarding government accounts.
The president’s petition – a 187-page document – claims that Mr Trump’s banning people from blocking is illogical because it only covers some parts of the Twitter account. If his messages are considered a speech by the government, then his ability to block people should be seen, the petition argues.
As such, blocking a user should be considered “an official refusal to consider the respondents’ speech,” which would also be allowed under the First Amendment, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey B Wall wrote.
“President Trump’s ability to use the features of his personal Twitter account, including the blocking feature, is independent of his presidential office. Blocking third-party accounts from interacting with the @realDonaldTrump account is a purely personal action that does not constitute a “right or privilege created by the State,” it states.
The petition goes on to say that people blocked by the president are unable to view the president’s tweets, pointing out that all tweets from the account are visible when users are not logged in.
It also suggests that respondents may name Mr. Trump’s personal account in their own tweets, and a commenter may post screenshots of the account next to their tweets.
The lawsuit against Donald Trump’s twitter account was brought by The Knight First Amendment Institute at the University of Columbia, which is acting on behalf of seven blocked users.
The case “stands for a principle that is fundamental to our democracy and in principle synonymous with the First Amendment: officials cannot exclude people from public forums simply because they disagree with their political views,” said Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight Institute.
“The Supreme Court must reject the White House petition and leave the careful and well-reasoned decision of the higher appeal in place,” Jaffer added, as reported by CNBC.
Donald Trump has previously tried to take action to protect the perceived integrity of his Twitter account. In response to the social media company adding fact-checking labels to his tweets, Mr. Trump signed an executive order that would section 230 mofidy, legislation that protects all websites from legal liability over content posted by users.
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