The Knight First Amendment Institute has sent a letter to US President Donald Trump, saying his decision to block users from his Twitter account violates the First Amendment.
“When the government makes a space available to the public at large for the purpose of expressive activity, it creates a public forum from which it may not constitutionally exclude individuals on the basis of viewpoint,” it states.
“This is true even if the space in question is metaphysical rather than physical; even if the space is privately rather than publicly owned; and even when the limited public forum is one of [the government’s] own creation.”The government may impose reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions in a designated public forum, but it may not exclude people simply because it disagrees with them.
The blocking of users from the Twitter account suppresses speech in a number of ways, it said.
- Users who have been blocked cannot follow Trump on Twitter, and they are limited in their ability to view his tweets, find his tweets, and learn which accounts follow him.
- They are limited in their ability to participate in comment threads associated with his tweets, which impacts other users’ ability to learn their views.
What is YOUR opinion on this my fellow Steemers?