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Freedom of speech much? Trump sued for blocking users

Freedom of speech much? Trump sued for blocking users
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Summary Twitter users blocked by the president for their criticism have filed a legal suit

(Web Desk) - Donald Trump, one of the most active presidents of America on social media, has been sued over claims of violation of the First Amendment.

Recently, a group of Twitter users, who were blocked for criticising Trump, resulting in not being allowed to comment or access his Twitter account, have sued him and his White House communication aides for violating their constitutional rights.

The suit that was filed in a federal court in New York on Tuesday says that Trump’s Twitter account @realDonaldTrump, establishes a “public forum for speech by, to, and about the President”. The petitioners are requesting an injunction that Trump should unblock them and cease blocking those who are only basing their opinions.

The plaintiffs filing the suit argue that it is a public forum and no one should be blocked for their political beliefs, claiming that it is a direct violation of the First Amendment, which is about the freedom of speech.

“It’s like barring people at the door of a city council meeting because they criticised your policy,” said Katie Fallow, a senior attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, which is representing the blocked Twitter users.

The lawsuit speaks of the legal theories regarding the freedom of speech and civic participation in which this micro blogging website plays a vital role. Twitter is now a primary means of public communication, which is used by everyone including the president of the United States.
Trump has around 33 million Twitter followers, and he receives thousands of replied on his tweets.

According to the Guardian, White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who is named as a defendant in the suit along with White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino, said in June that Trump’s tweets should be considered “official statements”.

“This isn’t just about Trump, and it’s not just about Twitter,” Holly Figueroa, one of the plaintiffs wrote in the Washington Post recently. Figueroa tweets using the handle @AynRandPaulRyan. “It’s about ensuring that as new platforms of communication are developed, and more and more politicians use social media as a primary way to communicate with constituents, we don’t lose our ability to participate in our democracy or exercise our First Amendment rights.”

In his opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy described social media as “the modern public square” and mentioned the usefulness of Twitter for Americans to “petition their elected representatives and otherwise engage with them in a direct manner”.

“While in the past there may have been difficulty in identifying the most important places (in a spatial sense) for the exchange of views, today the answer is clear,” Kennedy wrote. “It is cyberspace – the ‘vast democratic forums of the Internet’ in general ... and social media in particular.”

Twitter users have stood in solidarity with those who were blocked by the president Trump. The hashtag "Blocked by Trump" has gone viral.

 

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