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Judge Rules Trump Can’t Block People on Twitter

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Re: Judge Rules Trump Can’t Block People on Twitter

#151

Post by spookthesunset »

paulddraper wrote: post #119
cmiles74 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is forcing Trump to use Twitter. They are saying that if he uses Twitter, he must leave his tweets open to all the public and not a subset. President Trump could always choose to close his account if he finds this requirement to be too onerous.

Do his Gmail emails need to be open to all the public? His Slack messages? His Facebook posts? I don't see how anyone, president or otherwise, can't chose whom they send messages to.

> Do his Gmail emails need to be open to all the public? His Slack messages? His Facebook posts?

If they are being used to conduct official business, most likely yes. They will need to comply with federal regulations for data retention, public disclosure (or confidentiality as the case may be), etc.

You may recall another candidate who was running for president in 2016 getting raked under the coals for using personal email to conduct federal business.

> I don't see how anyone, president or otherwise, can't chose whom they send messages to.

What's to not understand? They are acting in an official capacity. Thus they are legally and ethically bound to a higher standard.

Re: Judge Rules Trump Can’t Block People on Twitter

#152

Post by ryan-c »

megaman22 wrote: post #146

Trump has multiple twitter accounts. His primary one is @realDonaldTrump, which he's been using since 2009, long before he was a government figure. This is his private citizen Twitter account, as far as I'm concerned, and he can do whatever he damn well pleases there. If he were to block people from his @POTUS President Donald Trump account, then I might take issue with that.

Has he ever used the POTUS account? From its recent activity it appears to be run by a PR team and only retweets things.

As far as Twitter is concerned, his "personal account" is an official government account, exempt from being banned for posting content that otherwise would violate Twitter's ToS.

Re: Judge Rules Trump Can’t Block People on Twitter

#154

Post by s73v3r_ »

bcheung wrote: post #124
Karishma1234 wrote: post #90

I am not legal expert but it makes perfect sense that any government official must not deny access to information to any citizen which is easily available to another. Blocking means other person can not see trump's tweets. I believe Trump can always mute other people. Let us consider the following scenarios : - Trump blocks only black people on Twitter. - Hawaii's missile alert systems issues a real missile alert on…

Block also makes it so people can't harass you. I think this is an important distinction. By saying you can't block someone the judge is also saying you can't ignore someone who is harassing you. Anyone who isn't logged in can still see it. They can just open an incognito window. They aren't really blocked from viewing his tweets. It's unfortunate that the 2 are tied together into the same function. This would be a m…

I believe Trump would still be able to Mute people.

Re: Judge Rules Trump Can’t Block People on Twitter

#155

Post by mal10c »

spookthesunset wrote: post #118
mal10c wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A mouthpiece yes, but an official way to "make policy" no. Policy is still created through official means like signing executive orders, etc.

> A mouthpiece yes, but an official way to "make policy" no Sorry but you are wrong. Trump's administration has stated that his tweets are official statements. Meaning, he can't block people who reply to his tweets. https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/06/politics/trump-tweets-officia...

Huh, I stand corrected. Good find.

Re: Judge Rules Trump Can’t Block People on Twitter

#156

Post by chimeracoder »

ikeyany wrote: post #147
chimeracoder wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your account gets banned.... Wouldn't it thus be a violation of the first amendment? Not unless the government is the entity doing the banning (or collaborating with Twitter to ban accounts at its request). If the government ran its own Mastodon instance, then there would be an argument to be made that it couldn't ban users on that Mastodon instance, depending on the nature of that Mastodon instance and what it'…

Can we use a more common example? If one of the ways to interact with the executive branch is by calling the white house, wouldn't telecoms banning you from having a phone number be a more similar analogy?

> If one of the ways to interact with the executive branch is by calling the white house, wouldn't telecoms banning you from having a phone number be a more similar analogy?

No, because that's not what this ruling does. This ruling says that the White House can't block incoming calls from a specific number.

(Though even that's not really a great analogy, because phone numbers are not considered to correspond uniquely or permanently to an individual the way that social media accounts are).

Re: Judge Rules Trump Can’t Block People on Twitter

#157

Post by RightMillennial »

mschuster91 wrote: post #105
mieseratte wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Drumpf On a tangent, what is the deal with the "Drumpf" thing? It was his family name some time ago, so is this just the other sides' "Barack Hussein Obama" or is there more to it?

> It was his family name some time ago, so is this just the other sides' "Barack Hussein Obama" or is there more to it? No, it's not the same thing. The Hussein thing is that the Alt-Right uses it to imply Obama being a Muslim (which he is not) and thus, by extension, a terrorist supporter/enabler. The Drumpf thing, however, is nothing more than highlighting the family origin (which Trump actually even stated himself…

I don't know about that. Whenever I've seen "Drumpf" used it seems to be trying to associate Trump with Nazis (because it's German) which is very similar to purposely using "Hussein" (which is Arabic) to associate Obama with Muslim extremists.

Re: Judge Rules Trump Can’t Block People on Twitter

#159

Post by 3pt14159 »

spookthesunset wrote: post #129
aksss wrote: post #64

This seems wrong on the face of it. The judge asks the rhetorical question of whether the logic changes based on whether he's president or not, and he answers his question with a "No". So this is saying that no public official can block others on Twitter. That seems like it's in the "suicide pact" column of rights defense, but then I'm not one that cares about Twitter personally. Just seems that plenty of other forum…

> And given that blocking is part and parcel to the app, it would seem like everyone is buying into the terms of the environment when they start using it That isn't how this works. Just because Twitter allows people to block stuff, doesn't mean Trump gets to block stuff. In a "normal" government, they'd pick a vendor with software that would let them make official policy statements in a way that complied with the law…

Oh common.

Spam and a harassment is a problem. Let the people he blocks make a new account to follow him or open an incognito window.

Re: Judge Rules Trump Can’t Block People on Twitter

#160

Post by jessfyi »

megaman22 wrote: post #146

Trump has multiple twitter accounts. His primary one is @realDonaldTrump, which he's been using since 2009, long before he was a government figure. This is his private citizen Twitter account, as far as I'm concerned, and he can do whatever he damn well pleases there. If he were to block people from his @POTUS President Donald Trump account, then I might take issue with that.

The President of the United States actively chooses to use @realDonaldTrump as in the same manner as a government official would in any other public forum, as such he must comply with the rules governing them as enshrined in the Constitution, features of that forum notwithstanding. The moment he began using it in a official capacity, was the moment it stopped being personal. Imagine if he was in a physical town hall, the placard in front of him doesn't change the fact that he's a government official.
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