The lawsuit, brought by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University in New York and joined by seven individual Twitter users, claims Trump blocked a number of accounts whose owners replied to his tweets with comments that criticized, mocked or disagreed with the president.
Trump's blocking of the accounts amounted to an unconstitutional effort to suppress dissent, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York.
Because Trump frequently turns to Twitter to make policy statements, his account qualifies as a public forum from which the government cannot exclude people on the basis of their views, according to the lawsuit. Twitter users are unable to see or respond to tweets from accounts that block them.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last month White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump's tweets were considered "official statements by the president of the United States."
>hmm now that I can't spend every waking moment tweeting at a person, what else can I do to get attention?
Jaxson Gonzalez
I'd love to be that bike seat if she had diarrhea. All those smelly ladyfarts in my little seat mouth
Aaron Johnson
ahahahahahaha
good night orange nigger. its been fun seeing you squirm
Michael Hill
so is finished this time?
Liam Collins
So now we can sue people if they block you on twitter?? lmao.
There needs to be a cleansing of this planet.Sooner rather than later.
Blake Gomez
>BLOCKING ME ON TWITTER IS LITERALLY FASCISM
Liberals are intent on losing the 2018 midterms, that much is clear at this point
Bentley Murphy
If anyone ever asks you "What's a frivolous lawsuit?" you can show them this information.
Carter Robinson
Far too many Americans have been raised in "me"-type generations, the Silent Generation are all over 71 and the Generation is basically dead- those were the last two generations that experienced an America that wasn't 100% prosperous. Boomers are now in their 60s, they and all generations after them are decadent and childish.
Adam Hall
Nice nu-fag bait faggot Your contributing to the cancer of the board Kindly fuck off
Owen Nguyen
>Because Trump frequently turns to Twitter to make policy statements, his account qualifies as a public forum
says who ???? no such thing
also YOU CAN JUST LOG OUT FROM TWITTER and READ ALL OF TRUMP SHIT , these retards should be gassed srsly
Jaxon Rogers
*nu-pol
William Barnes
>So now we can sue people if they block you on twitter?? lmao. No, you can sue the President if he blocks you on Twitter. My god, what fucking site do you think you're on? This is meant to be about anonymity (at least on a user-to-user level, we're still tracked) and being able to say what you want, and here you want the fucking president to get to be the type of faggot who block people who critizice him on Twitter.
Zachary Gutierrez
>No basis in fact or law. Move for Rule 11 sanctions.
These things are filed for publicity purposes. The group uses this as a fund raising ploy to get lefty dupes to donate to the cause. It only takes $400 fee to file a lawsuit in federal court, yet the publicity might generate thousands in donations. After the money is raked in, the suit gets quietly dropped.
Cooper Foster
can I sue obama then?
Wyatt Sanchez
yes actually. GET ON IT
Parker Thomas
Poor guys. They're being told that a twitter block can be used as a 1st amendment breach by lawyers and they're buying it. Poor kids.
Nathan Stewart
what did you post? hate speech? gay porn? spam? too fucking bad you degenerates will NEVER win
Benjamin Price
BLOCKED.COM
David Morgan
So were people in the past legally entitled to go up on stage and argue with Presidents after they gave speeches? Would it be illegal for Bill Clinton to have security guards arrest a guy trying to come up on stage and argue with him?
Xavier Cox
This reminds me, what ever happened to "don't taze me bro"
Levi Butler
It's 5D backgammon
He is going to turn around and make enforce social media laws on government officials then unblock everyone.
Leo Wood
Nah, the annoying vocalists have always been given undue attention. Most people keep their mouths shut about this shit.
Caleb White
Do there epople not realize they're setting a precedent that THEY COULD BE THE TARGETS OF WHAY THEY'RE SUING TRUMP FOR?
Seriously I cant understand why. If this goes through, then imagine what THOSE twitter users will go through if they block other people. Fucking hell i feel like im living in a grand metropolis that resides in the internet that's controlled by absolute fucktards.
Michael Nguyen
>log out of twitter, still be able to see tweet >no lawful rights to be able to respond or read them >so sad
Elijah Martinez
this is so amazing, these retards have no idea what they're doing, but they are playing directly into exactly what I want.
There is no possible way for a court to rule that only parts of twitter are public forums, they'll have to say that online communications are public forums and therefore protected under the 1st amendment and under the purview of the Federal Government.
If this gains traction we could see lawsuits aimed at faceberg, twatter and the rest of these fags in the next few years. They'll have to allow any type of speech on their platform.
Blake Thomas
>Do there epople not realize they're setting a precedent that THEY COULD BE THE TARGETS OF WHAY THEY'RE SUING TRUMP FOR? but user, they are on the right side of history and after the evil drumpf is disposed (just like in my harry potter novels) they will reign forever, bringing justice, equality and multiculturalism to all!
Dylan Williams
That would require self-awareness. They can't even accomplish what apes can do.
Zachary Bailey
Personally I can't wait to sue the shit out of Patton Oswald for blocking me
Dominic Brown
lol'd
Adrian Campbell
CNTL + SHIFT + N
Twitter.com/realdonaldtrump
And viola you are now seeing all of trumps tweets.
Lucas Rogers
oh sweetie, we already won.
Matthew Reyes
they're not blocked from tweeting, they're blocked from appearing in the Presidential feed, correct? case closed. I want my government to counter-sue for $85M, though. They've wasted everyone's time and need to pay for that transgression.
Hudson Martinez
I've been banned from Twitter like 30 times
I want ALL of my accounts back. All of them.
Angel Murphy
We got some assmad trolls in Canada who pollute our mighty Prime Minister glorious Twitter feed. Civility is lost to these idiots.
Xavier Anderson
the left just keeps throwing their money away.
im sure those jewish lawyers have shaken them for a couple million and the case will get thrown out immediately.
Liam Brooks
We've been over this before. It's his personal account and by law, he can block people from seeing his personal feeds. If it were the POTUS account, then it would be different.
Carter Scott
>Twitter users are unable to see or respond to tweets from accounts that block them. After reading this again, the only thing that's limiting their speech is the respond part. So I guess what they are implying is that Trump actually reads all the responses and is taking them into consideration when making decisions about policy.
Landon Allen
they can still tweet, you can even still tweet at a user who blocked you by knowing their handle. you just can't see their stuff.
first amendment guarantees you won't be charged or arrested for speech by the government, doesn't account for tweets. even if it does, it isn't preventing them for exercising their free speech rights, plus twitter is a private company. like other users said, this would open a floodgate of lawsuits from conservatives and alt-right people who have been banned/blocked. this would benefit us more in the long run than the left.
Cooper Lee
>>first amendment guarantees you won't be charged or arrested for speech by the government, doesn't account for tweets.
Daniel Torres
sorry that was written wrong.
doesn't apply to users being able to see HIS tweets. obviously it covers my ass as an american for a tweet, I write, but in this context, the first amendment doesn't guarantee me the right to see donald trumps tweet, which is what they're claiming.
Logan Ward
It's because they're retarded cunts that use Trump's tweets as a platform to garner attention and fame for themselves. You can literally log out and read the tweets, it's not even that big of a deal. Again, the main reason these people are mad is because now they are deprived of their claim to fame, which was shitposting on Trump's twitter 24/7
Kevin Roberts
>If it were the POTUS account, then it would be different. splain this to me then Lucy
Wyatt Perez
It also isn't the official white house account, which can't block people legally. It's his personal account, which can block people.
Sebastian Moore
Basically, this is his private twitter account that allows him to just tweet what he wants.
There is however a POTUS twitter account, which is used for national statements and even to give instructions in the case of an emergency. That account cannot block people because it's a part of the state. His personal account can.
Lucas Butler
this is also a good point, but is there a law that states the @potus account can't block people?
Anthony Ross
Then why was Obama able to block people with his Potus account?
>WTF I HAVE FREE SPEECH, YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO IGNORE ME, GOING TO SUE YOU REEEEE
Hunter Williams
It was his personal account, not the POTUS. Also it's part of the state, which legally can't block people. The accounts for let's say... FBI or Navy also can't block people, since they are official state accounts.
Connor James
Twitter needs to be safe space for the Donald and all.
Logan Gutierrez
Why doesn't she just view his tweets from a new account?
Carter Brown
>Why doesn't she Implying that it's a she
Nicholas Garcia
wtf? i'm voting hillary now
Nathan Richardson
If Twitter is ruled to be a public policy forum I can sue them for being blocked too.
Logan Ortiz
>Twitter users are unable to see or respond to tweets from accounts that block them. >unable to see
FIRST TIME I'VE EVER HEARD OF THIS Fucking retards.
Landon Cook
lets go ahead and fine twitter 100million for treason