US court rules Trump can't block critics on Twitter

Published Jul 9, 2019

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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.

dpa

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