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Lawyers Clash over Trump’s Right to Block Twitter Users

Lawyers Clash over Trump’s Right to Block Twitter Users
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It is not a secret that US President Donald Trump is in love with the social network Twitter, which he joined back in 2009. Attention to Trump's Twitter activity significantly increased during his 2016 election campaign.

Lawyers Clash over Trump’s Right to Block Twitter Users


In this respect, Trump's lawyers claimed in a court that the president has the right to block any follower of his Twitter account as it's a strictly personal matter, the Bloomberg news agency reported on Thursday.


The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University sued Donald Trump and several members of his staff last summer on behalf of several users, who claimed that he blocked them on Twitter after they had replied to his messages.


According to the plaintiffs' lawyer Katherine Fallow, Trump's move violates the first amendment as it constitutes a government action because the president operates in his official capacity and employs White House staff to help him with his Twitter account. Furthermore, the plaintiffs claimed that a Twitter account was a public forum, open for talks, thus making their speech protected.


At the same time, Assistant US Attorney Michael H. Baer called on US District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald at a federal court in Manhattan to dismiss the case, claiming that Twitter was more like a convention where an official can choose with whom they talk.


The judge, however, refused to announce her decision yet, urging both sides to settle the issue outside of court.


Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

 

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