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Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling

reuters.com

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Re: Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling

#41

Post by paulpauper »

factsaresacred wrote: post #40

So how does this fit into the "Twitter is a private company" argument when users complain about their free speech rights after being suspended? If one's account is suspended they cannot - by definition - access Trump's tweets. This is similar reasoning as that given in court: "comments on the president’s account [are] public forums and that blocking Twitter Inc users for their views violated their right to free speec…

the situation becomes messy because the next question is, should any public official not be allowed to block. This includes Congressmen accounts or senators. If Twitter retains the right to revoke individual access to the site, then Trump should be able to do what he wants with this account. IF Trump were using a federally-funded social network, then that would be a different issue

Re: Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling

#42

Post by slg »

yosito wrote: post #15
chollida1 wrote: post #5

In a slightly related topic to blocking people on twitter, Elon Musk is being investigated by the SEC for a whole whack of things he shouldn't have done. 1) Release material information without alerting the exchange to stop trading and 2) and this is the tie in, releasing said information on his personal twitter account. Now this is normally fine based on RegFD but he has blocked people on twitter and RegFD is very c…

In traditional media, there are different rules for public figures than there are for private citizens. I think the same thing should apply to Twitter. Verified accounts should not be able to block anyone.

In hindsight it is a little weird that blocking exists as a concept at all. When you tweet from a public account you are putting that information out into the public. It seems silly to try to prevent certain people from seeing that content and it is trivially easy for a user to circumvent that block by logging out or creating a new account. Muting seems like the most logical way for people to control who they interact with on Twitter.

Re: Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling

#43

Post by Retric »

jonknee wrote: post #32
josteink wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With Twitter’s gradual shift from chronological timeline to overeager algorithmic shuffle .... deciding they would “engage” more with other content. Ironically, every time I notice a platform I use doing this, it immediate reduces my engagement for it. I can’t be the only one, can I?

> I can’t be the only one, can I? No, but as long as more people go the opposite direction it is a net positive. Considering it's seemingly the natural progression of timelines I am guessing the numbers show that this is the case.

Companies do dumb stuff all the time. As long as the numbers look good in the short term you can end up with stuff like open office plans becoming common even if they are a large net loss.

Re: Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling

#44

Post by danbolt »

slg wrote: post #42
yosito wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In traditional media, there are different rules for public figures than there are for private citizens. I think the same thing should apply to Twitter. Verified accounts should not be able to block anyone.

In hindsight it is a little weird that blocking exists as a concept at all. When you tweet from a public account you are putting that information out into the public. It seems silly to try to prevent certain people from seeing that content and it is trivially easy for a user to circumvent that block by logging out or creating a new account. Muting seems like the most logical way for people to control who they interac…

Wasn’t it removed at some point? I remember the nature of it changing but then being reversed due to negative responses. At the time I realized people were starting to use Twitter in ways not originally intended.

Re: Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling

#45

Post by oarsinsync »

chollida1 wrote: post #9
dwringer wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted because I was misinformed, as pointed out by a below comment]

> A potentially crucial difference is that Donald Trump's White House Press Secretary said in a press conference in June 2017 that Trump's twitter statements should be construed as official statements by the president's office. I'm not aware of a similar precedent involving Musk. Well Tesla has gone on record with an 8-k form that indicates that Elon's personal twitter account is able to speak for Tesla officially. h…

Can anyone who has downvoted this comment explain why?

The link to the 8-K provided very clearly states:

> For additional information, please follow Elon Musk’s and Tesla’s Twitter accounts: twitter.com/elonmusk and twitter.com/TeslaMotors

Which is in line with what the GP is stating. Various other financial reporting outfits have reported on this same document referencing the same line, and indicated that it may be considered justification as an official channel of distribution.

Whether or not it actually is concluded that way remains to be seen, but I'm not sure what's wrong with @chollida1's comment

Re: Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling

#46

Post by bumholio »

factsaresacred wrote: post #40

So how does this fit into the "Twitter is a private company" argument when users complain about their free speech rights after being suspended? If one's account is suspended they cannot - by definition - access Trump's tweets. This is similar reasoning as that given in court: "comments on the president’s account [are] public forums and that blocking Twitter Inc users for their views violated their right to free speec…

> If one's account is suspended they cannot - by definition - access Trump's tweets.

Since that is clearly not true, one practical effect is that it's setting a very low bar the difficulty one should overcome before claiming they are excluded from official communication by the government.

If the necessity of logging out then logging back in (or merely opening an Incognito window with a single click) is a rights violation, then surely not having any kind of access to online communication by the government is a much worse violation. So the government should either cease to use the internet or should make it available to all citizens as a basic citizen right.

Re: Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling

#47

Post by AnthonyMouse »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #36
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and this is the tie in, releasing said information on his personal twitter account. Now this is normally fine based on RegFD but he has blocked people on twitter and RegFD is very clear that information can't not be disseminated in a way that isn't available to everyone at the same time. How does that work when the account is public and can be read by anyone (presumably including any blocked users) by just not sign…

If it's a reply, you can't browse their full timeline without signing in.

Was it a reply? I can see the one that says "funding secured" without signing in.

Even for a reply, can't you still read it without signing in starting from the tweet it's a reply to?

Re: Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling

#48

Post by kbenson »

chollida1 wrote: post #5

In a slightly related topic to blocking people on twitter, Elon Musk is being investigated by the SEC for a whole whack of things he shouldn't have done. 1) Release material information without alerting the exchange to stop trading and 2) and this is the tie in, releasing said information on his personal twitter account. Now this is normally fine based on RegFD but he has blocked people on twitter and RegFD is very c…

> Release material information without alerting the exchange to stop trading

This whole incident sort of blows my mind. It seems like this should be Operating a Public Company 101 level knowledge, and the fact that he failed so spectacularly leads me to believe either someone at Tesla or the exchanges screwed up royally with the timing of some preliminary work and Musk didn't make sure it was done ahead of time, or he was drugged out of his mind on Sudafed or something (either because he thought it was okay or thought he could get away with it). I'm honestly not sure what's more likely given how stupidly obvious the error is.

Re: Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling

#49

Post by xienze »

compsciphd wrote: post #23
chollida1 wrote: post #5

In a slightly related topic to blocking people on twitter, Elon Musk is being investigated by the SEC for a whole whack of things he shouldn't have done. 1) Release material information without alerting the exchange to stop trading and 2) and this is the tie in, releasing said information on his personal twitter account. Now this is normally fine based on RegFD but he has blocked people on twitter and RegFD is very c…

I think one can make the argument that Trump and Musk might be different. Trump by blocking users doesn't prevent the users from seeing the content (i.e. they can log out and see the content). What it does do is prevent the user from easily engaging with the president (i.e. why its a free speech issue). It's basically saying that users A, B, and C can easily engage, but by blocking D, we are going to put a road block…

>What it does do is prevent the user from easily engaging with the president

They can’t just make another account with which to tell Trump “you suck”? Ah but how will everyone else know _I_ tweeted something at Trump if _my_ handle isn’t attached to it? That’s what these people are mad about. Not that they can’t reply to Trump (they can), but that other people won’t know about that sick burn they once made that was drowned out by 30000 others.

Re: Trump unblocks more Twitter users after U.S. court ruling

#50

Post by craftyguy »

paulpauper wrote: post #39

If Trump (or anyone) blocks you but you still want to read his tweets: Chrome incognito mode or log out of Twitter problem fixed lol

El Presidente should not have the power to exclude certain citizens from their communications.
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