Twitter Blocking and The First Amendment

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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 45th President of the United States numerous times per day. In fact, the @WhiteHouse Twitter account even tells followers to go to @realDonaldTrump for the latest from the President and his administration.

            Simply stated, social media accounts run by public officials are tantamount to government accounts and need to be treated as such. Our Constitution values criticism of the government as a protected right under the First Amendment, and government officials should not be able to quiet or block this criticism through social media antics. This debate is far from over and is not limited to either side of the aisle; President Trump has appealed the court ruling and additional lawsuits have been filed against one of Trump’s greatest critics, Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, for blocking users on her own Twitter account. I’m not sure that Alexander Hamilton would consider “tweets” and responses to “tweets” to be in the same category as his Federalist papers, but I believe that he would support their protection under the First Amendment and so do I.

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