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President Trump Can't Block People On Twitter, Court Rules (knightcolumbia.org)
Reader drunken_boxer777 writes: US District Judge Buchwald issued a 75-page ruling today clearly articulating why Donald Trump cannot block Twitter users, as it violates their First Amendment rights.
"Turning to the merits of plaintiffs' First Amendment claim, we hold that the speech in which they seek to engage is protected by the First Amendment and that the President and Scavino exert governmental control over certain aspects of the @realDonaldTrump account, including the interactive space of the tweets sent from the account. That interactive space is susceptible to analysis under the Supreme Court's forum doctrines, and is properly characterized as a designated public forum. The viewpoint-based exclusion of the individual plaintiffs from that designated public forum is proscribed by the First Amendment and cannot be justified by the President's personal First Amendment interests." Further reading: Bloomberg.
"Turning to the merits of plaintiffs' First Amendment claim, we hold that the speech in which they seek to engage is protected by the First Amendment and that the President and Scavino exert governmental control over certain aspects of the @realDonaldTrump account, including the interactive space of the tweets sent from the account. That interactive space is susceptible to analysis under the Supreme Court's forum doctrines, and is properly characterized as a designated public forum. The viewpoint-based exclusion of the individual plaintiffs from that designated public forum is proscribed by the First Amendment and cannot be justified by the President's personal First Amendment interests." Further reading: Bloomberg.
So if you're the leader of the United States, you're not allowed to use privacy features on a privately-owned social media platform. But that social media platform can block, hellban, censor and terminate the accounts of anyone, including the President, over arbitrarily decided, biased terms of service.
America, give up. Just hand the government over to the multinationals. They've owned you for years, you can stop pretending now.
To me the first amendment gives individuals the right to say things in public. This ruling seems to require that the recipient listen/read (deal with) what is being said. ;)
;)
So now if you are walking through the park and a government bueacrat/politician/loon is speaking you are required to stop and diligently listen?
But then maybe this is one of those, just because it involves Trump, Federal Court Judgements
But so be it. We'll see how this comes out.
Just my 2 cents
If that were true, Trump's twitter account would already be shut down. He has violated the terms of service many times (such as linking to hate groups), but he has an exemption.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
You shouldn't be. Trump actually didn't intend or expect to win the presidency, he intended his candidacy to be only a publicity stunt to promote a news network he planned to launch:
http://www.newsweek.com/mike-p...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I am not so sure. Twitter in this case is either a public forum or not. It could even be argued that they are similar to a government contractor providing the service since as one of the most prominent twitter users, they profit quite a bit from Trump's use of their platform. I think the judge in this case has a decent high level theoretical argument but is completely wrong. I can't see this not being reversed. When you begin to follow each logical implication of this ruling it just gets messier and messier. I'm not sure what the answer should be but... this can't be it.