Trump administration Petitions Supreme Court to let him Block People on Twitter

Listen to this article

US President Donald Trump’s administration has petitioned the Supreme Court to let him block people on Twitter again. The US Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that Trump can’t block other users on the social media app because the messages are governmental in nature and therefore part of a public forum. The Judge ruled such blocking users as a result of the political views they have expressed is impermissible under the First Amendment. Point to be noted that private companies are not usually bound by the First Amendment. The de facto nature of platforms like Twitter and Facebook as public spaces has made for difficult legislation with regards to government accounts. President Trump’s petition has a 187-page document and argues that banning Trump from blocking people is illogical because it only covers some parts of the Twitter account.

The acting solicitor general Jeffrey B Wall wrote, such blocking a user should be considered an official refusal to consider respondents’ speech that would also be allowable under the First Amendment. He added, “President Trump’s ability to use the features of his personal Twitter account, including the blocking function are independent of his presidential office. Blocking third-party accounts from interacting with the @realDonaldTrump account is a purely personal action that does not involve any right or privilege created by the State”. The petition goes on to say that people blocked by the president are not incapable of viewing the president’s tweets, pointing out that all tweets from the account are visible when users are not logged in.

It is noteworthy that it also suggests the respondents can mention Trump’s personal account in their own tweets and can post screenshots of the account alongside their tweets in response. The lawsuit against Donald Trump’s twitter account was brought by The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University acting on behalf of seven blocked users. The Knight Institute’s executive director, Jameel Jaffer said, “The case stands for a principle that is fundamental to our democracy and basically synonymous with the First Amendment: government officials can’t exclude people from public forums simply because they disagree with their political views. The Supreme Court should reject the White House’s petition and leave the appeals court’s careful and well-reasoned decision in place”.