A New York judge has ruled President Donald Trump cannot legally block offensive or trolling Twitter users because it violates their right to free speech in a “public forum.”
I sued the President, and I won. https://t.co/hE3rWcxIAY
— RPBP (@rpbp) May 23, 2018
United States district judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said, “The president presents the @realDonaldTrump account as being a presidential account as opposed to a personal account and, more importantly, uses the account to take action that can be taken only by the president as president.”
The Knight First Amendment Institute, representing seven plaintiffs who had been blocked, brought the case forward, arguing discussion arising from the Presidents tweets should be considered a public forum.
The Department of Justice, representing the President, argued that it was Trump’s own First Amendment rights to allow him to block people he did not wish to interact with.
Siding with the plaintiffs, Justice Buchwald went on to say, “While we must recognize, and are sensitive to, the President’s personal First Amendment rights, he cannot exercise those rights in a way that infringes the corresponding First Amendment rights of those who have criticized him.”
The ruling comes after Project Veritas revealed tweets from conservative and Donald Trump supporters are essentially censored.
President of Project Veritas James O’Keefe said, “If POTUS can’t block users on Twitter per First Amendment violations, can Twitter not shadowban tweets for political content on [the] same basis? We exposed video of Twitter engineers explaining how they specifically target @realDonaldTrump supporters’ tweets, and classify them as bots.”
If POTUS can't block users on Twitter per First Amendment violation, can Twitter not shadowban tweets for political content on same basis? We exposed video of Twitter engineers explaining how they specifically target @realdonaldtrump supporters' tweets, and classify them as bots. pic.twitter.com/zZfpMak89v
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) May 23, 2018
Wait, @realDonaldTrump is not allowed to block accounts but @Twitter is allowed to shadow-ban conservatives, delete tweets, terminate accounts, censor material, and block opposing views?
?
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 23, 2018
A judge has ruled Trump can’t block trolls on Twitter because it violates their First Amendment right. So when’s the lawsuit against @Jack for violating conservatives’ first amendment when twitter deleted our tweets, shadow bans them, or suspends our accounts?
— Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 23, 2018
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