What others say: Is following @realDonaldTrump a right?

  • By Los Angeles Time editorial
  • Wednesday, July 26, 2017 11:57am
  • Opinion

Despite pleas from across the political spectrum that he stop his 140-character outbursts, President Trump can’t stop tweeting. Indeed, he has defended his incessant online exclamations as essential to the conduct of his office. “My use of social media is not Presidential,” he tweeted earlier this month, “it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL.”

Taking Trump at his word about the importance of these communiques, a group of Twitter users who have been blocked from seeing and responding directly to his tweets has filed suit in federal court in New York seeking to regain access to @realDonaldTrump, the account Trump established before he became president and still uses. (He also tweets, but less provocatively and to fewer followers, on an official @POTUS account he inherited from Barack Obama.)

The plaintiffs’ legal argument strikes us as debatable. But their sense of grievance rings true. If Trump is going to treat Twitter as a means of engagement with the public, he shouldn’t muzzle voices that disagree with him.

That is just what Trump, or his social-media staff, did to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was filed this week by lawyers from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. For example, Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza, a writer and legal analyst, was blocked after she responded to a Trump tweet about his election victory with: “To be fair, you didn’t win the WH: Russia won it for you.”

Buckwalter-Poza and the other plaintiffs argue that the president and his social-media team are violating the 1st Amendment by preventing them from viewing Trump’s tweets, replying to them and participating in the associated comment threads. It’s an intriguing but not conclusive argument.

The idea that the plaintiffs are being kept in the dark about what Trump has tweeted is doubtful; his tweets — especially the factually challenged ones — tend to be copiously quoted by others on Twitter and in the news media, and can easily be viewed by the plaintiffs on Twitter if they log out of their accounts.

The plaintiffs are on more solid ground in complaining that they’ve been barred from arguing with Trump in his own feed. But to turn that into a constitutional claim, they must argue that @realDonaldTrump is a “designated public forum” controlled by the 1st Amendment, and that’s much harder to establish. The longstanding account is “personal” even though he uses it to post about government and politics.

Then there is the fact that Twitter is a private company, not a public utility. It should have a 1st Amendment right to set its own rules — even though, as professor Eugene Volokh of UCLA law school has pointed out, a federal judge has ruled that a Facebook page set up by a local government was a “limited public forum.” Facebook, like Twitter, is a private company.

Twitter created the blocking tool as a countermeasure to disruptive users, in the spirit of promoting civil debate. Whatever the courts say about the constitutional issue, Trump is acting childishly by excluding citizens who dare merely to disagree with him from @realDonaldTrump — a forum that he considers an important channel of communication. Such pettiness isn’t presidential — or even MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. If Trump is going to use this forum to speak to the world, he needs to let the world talk back.

— Los Angeles Time editorial, July 15

More in Opinion

Promise garden flowers are assembled for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex in Soldotna, Alaska, on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Opinion: Let’s keep momentum in the fight against Alzheimer’s

It’s time to reauthorize these bills to keep up our momentum in the fight to end Alzheimer’s and all other types of Dementia.

Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., questions Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Sept. 14 on Capitol Hill.
Opinion: Music to the ears of America’s adversaries

Russia and China have interest in seeing America’s democracy and standing in the world weakened

Dr. Sarah Spencer. (Photo by Maureen Todd and courtesy of Dr. Sarah Spencer)
Opinion: Alaskans needs better access to addiction treatment. Telehealth can help.

I have witnessed firsthand the struggles patients face in accessing addiction care

Former Gov. Frank Murkowski speaks on a range of subjects during an interview with the Juneau Empire in May 2019. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire File)
Opinion: Need for accounting and legislative oversight of the permanent fund

There is a growing threat to the permanent fund, and it is coming from the trustees themselves

(Juneau Empire File)
Opinion: Imagine the cost of health and happiness if set by prescription drug companies

If you didn’t have heartburn before seeing the price, you will soon — and that requires another prescription

Mike Arnold testifies in opposition to the use of calcium chloride by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities on Kenai Peninsula roads during a Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2023, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai Peninsula Votes: Civic actions that carried weight

Watching an impressive display of testimony, going to an event, or one post, can help so many people learn about something they were not even aware of

The Kasilof River is seen from the Kasilof River Recreation Area, July 30, 2019, in Kasilof, Alaska. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)
Opinion: Helicopter fishing a detriment to fish and fishers

Proposal would prohibit helicopter transport for anglers on southern peninsula

The cover of the October 2023 edition of Alaska Economic Trends magazine, a product of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. (Image via department website)
Dunleavy administration’s muzzling of teacher pay report is troubling

Alaska Economic Trends is recognized both in Alaska and nationally as an essential tool for understanding Alaska’s unique economy

Image via weseeyou.community
5 tips for creating a culture of caring in our high schools

Our message: No matter what challenges you’re facing, we see you. We support you. And we’re here for you.

The Alaska State Capitol is photographed in Juneau, Alaska. (Clarise Larson/Juneau Empire File)
Opinion: Vance’s bill misguided approach to Middle East crisis

In arguing for her legislation, Vance offers a simplistic, one-dimensional understanding of the conflict

A rainbow appears over downtown as residents check out rows of electric vehicles at Juneau’s EV & E-bike Roundup on Sept. 23. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire File)
Opinion: We should all pay more for the privilege of driving

Alaska has the lowest gas tax in the country

tease.
Opinion: Sports saves

ASAA has decided to take a vulnerable subgroup of these youth and reinforce that they are different and unwelcome