Will Southport MP follow Judge’s Trump Twitter Ruling?
Southport MP Damien Moore should take a leaf out of the book of the New York Federal Court’s book and unblock his constituents from Facebook and Twitter according to some Southport social media users.
Manhattan District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald has ruled that discussions arising from Donald Trump’s tweets on Twitter should be considered a ‘public forum’. So the US president should not legally ‘block’ any Twitter users from participating in those discussions because doing so violates their right to free speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
The lawsuit was filed in the new York court over @realDonaldTrump, a 9-year-old Twitter account with over 50 million followers by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and several Twitter users.
Judge Buchwald rejected the argument of US Justice Department lawyers that Trump’s own First Amendment rights allowed him to block people with whom he did not wish to interact and purchase followers.
ruled that the tweets were ‘governmental in nature.’
Although she recognized the impact on the individuals by Trump’s action was not ‘of the highest magnitude.’ she declared that the US Constitution’s First Amendment protects people even from trivial harm.
‘The President presents the @realDonaldTrump account as being a presidential account as opposed to a personal account and, more importantly, uses the account to take actions that can be taken only by the President as President,’ the judge said.
The US ruling emphasised the role that ‘blocking’ has which goes far beyond stopping the author being annoyed by people he doesn’t want to hear from. It restricts participation in debate on forums. If someone just wants to be kept away from a particular internet user there is an opportunity to mute rather than block.
Blocked Southport social media users share the same concerns about MP Damien Moore who has blocked many of his constituents from his Twitter account making it difficult for them to see what he is saying on local or national issues or participate in discussions about this. They argue that although the US court holds no sway in Britain the moral argument remains the same whichever country a politician is based in.