A federal judge in New York on
Wednesday ruled that President Donald Trump may not legally
block Twitter users because doing so violates their rights under
the First Amendment of the Constitution.
The ruling by US District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in
Manhattan came in response to a lawsuit filed against Trump in
July by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia
University and several Twitter users.
Trump was a prolific tweeter from his @RealDonaldTrump
account before becoming president and since has used it to
promote his agenda, announce policy and attack critics and the
investigation of possible Russian connections to his
presidential campaign.
A spokesman for the US Department of Justice, which
represents the president in the case, had no immediate comment.
Twitter also did not immediately comment.
The plaintiffs have said Trump’s Twitter account creates a
public forum and that the president cannot block other users
simply because they criticise him in replies to his tweets.
Twitter, a social media platform, lets users post short
texts, called tweets, to which other users may respond.
