Don’t like what someone is saying on Twitter? The simplest thing to do would be to block them, which is what US President Donald Trump has been doing in which he has been blocking those he deems to be his critics. However it seems that he’s not allowed to do that, according to a Federal judge’s ruling.According to the ruling, US District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald claims that by blocking users on Twitter, it apparently violates the First Amendment. “We hold that portions of the @realDonaldTrump account — the ‘interactive space’ where Twitter users may directly engage with the content of the President’s tweets — are properly analyzed under the ‘public forum’ doctrines set forth by the Supreme Court, that such space is a designated public forum, and that the blocking of the plaintiffs based on their political speech constitutes viewpoint discrimination that violates the FirstAmendment.”
She goes on to add, “In so holding, we reject the defendants’ contentions that the First Amendment does not apply in this case and that the President’s personal First Amendment interests supersede those of plaintiffs.” According to Trump’s previous claims, he is allowed to block users as he does the majority of his tweeting from his personal account, thus he is not restricted by the “public forum” designation.
Whether or not Trump will accept this ruling and move to start unblocking users remains to be seen, or if he will challenge this ruling, but if anything it does set an interesting precedent.