Twitter Blocking and The First Amendment
Day and night, we have all seen President Trump speak out to the country and the world through his Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump . Whether you are a supporter of the President or a critic, modern technology is coming up against the First Amendment in ways well beyond the imagination of the Founding Fathers. This past July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that President Trump’s act of blocking social media account users from his @realDonaldTrump account was a violation of the First Amendment (See Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University v. Trump) . President Trump argues that his Twitter account is of a “personal” nature, not a “professional” nature. This claim by the president is simply not true. On countless occasions, President Trump has used his Twitter platform to make statements regarding official government business. To argue otherwise is to ignore the countless statements President Trump makes as the official 45 th