Donald Trump Has Been Barred By Court From Blocking Twitter Users For Their Political Beliefs

A New York judge has ruled that the US President, Donald Trump must not block Twitter users from his social media account based on their political views. 

The district judge Naomi Reice told the US President that blocking access to his Twitter account would be a violation of the right to free speech.

Mr Trump’s @RealDonaldTrumpplatform has become an integral and controversial part of his presidency that he uses to announce policy and verbally attack critics, with over 52 million Twitter followers on the handle.

The ruling of the judge states that comments on the US leader’s account, and those of other government officials, were public forums, and that blocking Twitter users for their views violated their right to free speech under the First Amendment of Constitution.

Eugene Volokh, a University of California Los Angeles School of Law professor who specialises in First Amendment issues, said the decision’s effect would reach beyond Mr Trump.
“It would end up applying to a wide range of government officials throughout the country,” he said.

Mr Trump's legal representative from the U.S. Department of Justice, said: “We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision and are considering our next steps.”

However Twitter Inc, which is not a party to the lawsuit, declined to comment on the ruling.

The ruling was in response to a First Amendment lawsuit filed against Mr Trump in July by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and several Twitter users.

The individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Philip Cohen, a sociology professor at the University of Maryland; Holly Figueroa, described in the complaint as a political organizer and songwriter in Washington state; and Brandon Neely, a Texas police officer.

According to the diasporareporters Mr Cohen, who was blocked from Trump’s account last June after posting an image of the president with words “Corrupt Incompetent Authoritarian,” said he was “delighted” with Wednesday’s decision.

“This increases my faith in the system a little,” he said.

Novelists Stephen King and Anne Rice, comedian Rosie O’Donnell, model Chrissy Teigen, actress Marina Sirtis and the military veterans political action committee VoteVets.org are among the others who have said on Twitter that Mr Trump blocked them.

The judge rejected the argument by Justice Department lawyers that Trump’s own First Amendment rights allowed him to block people with whom he did not wish to interact.

“While we must recognise, 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,” Buchwald said.

She said Mr Trump could “mute” users, meaning he would not see their tweets while they could still respond to his, without violating their free speech rights.



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