The Knight First Amendment Institute, on behalf of seven Twitter users blocked from viewing the tweets from President Donald Trump's personal account, filed a complaint in the Southern District of New York today demanding their access be returned. The news follows the Knight Institute's letter last month, which argued that his Twitter account constituted a public forum and that blocking Americans from viewing its content violated the First Amendment.
Following Knight's first request, President Trump appeared to continue blocking critics on Twitter.The news follows the Supreme Court's affirmation that social media provides a vital way for private citizens to make their voices heard, and to engage with elected officials, in a decision regarding the rights of sex offenders to access social media. Sean Spicer and Dan Scavino are also addressed in Knight's complaint.
“President Trump’s Twitter account has become an important source of news and information about the government, and an important forum for speech by, to, or about the president,” said Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s executive director, in a statement. “The First Amendment applies to this digital forum in the same way it applies to town halls and open school board meetings. The White House acts unlawfully when it excludes people from this forum simply because they’ve disagreed with the president.”
The lawsuit also argues that President Trump violates the rights of users who are not blocked, who can no longer view blocked critical voices on the President's Twitter threads.
"Because of the way the President and his aides use the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, the account is a public forum under the First Amendment. Defendants have made the account accessible to all, taking advantage of Twitter’s interactive platform to directly engage the President’s 33 million followers. The President’s tweets routinely generate tens of thousands of comments in the vibrant discussion forums associated with each of the President’s tweets," the complaint says.
The complaint also cites statements that tweets from @realDonaldTrump are "official statements," arguing that they "have been treated as such by politicians, world leaders, the National Archive and Records Administration, and federal courts."
Those blocked included Philip Cohen, a professor from Maryland, Eugene Gu, a surgery resident from Nashville, Holly Figueroa, a songwriter and organizer from Washington, Nicholas Pappas, a comedy writer from New York, Joseph Papp, an author from Pennsylvania, Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza, a writer and political consultant from Washington, D.C. and Brandon Neely, a police officer from Texas.
