Washington - A US appeals court on Tuesday ruled that President
Donald Trump cannot block accounts on Twitter because he disagrees
with them, saying it was a violation of First Amendment protections
on free speech.
The Second Circuit Court, in affirming a previous ruling, noted that the
president uses his Twitter account for official purposes, including
the dissemination of policy and that the White House itself has
described the account's content as official.
The New York court ruled that it was discriminatory, and therefore
illegal, for the president to block critics over the expression of
their views.
The case is likely to help set the rules for how public online spaces
work for office holders.
The ruling went into significant detail about how Twitter works and
noted workarounds for people who are blocked by certain accounts. But
it said that these measures were insufficient in the Trump case, to
ensure constitutional protections of free expression.
The suit was filed by several people who were blocked by the Trump
account, apparently after replying with critical remarks to tweets by
the president from his @realDonaldTrump account.