White House urges Supreme Court to let Trump block critics on personal Twitter account

White House has asked US Supreme Court to let President Donald Trump block critics from his personal Twitter account as federal appeals court held it as a violation of the First Amendment. Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall argued in a court filing that Trump’s personal Twitter account is his personal property and blocking people is akin to elected officials who deny opponents’ yard sign on their front lawns. 

“President Trump's ability to use the features of his personal Twitter account, including the blocking function, are independent of his presidential office,” wrote Wall. 

According to media reports, it unlikely for the top court to even make a decision on hearing the case before presidential elections scheduled in November. The appeals court had ruled that the US President uses his personal account @realDonaldTrump, with more than 85 million followers, for daily pronouncements that are overwhelmingly official in nature. 

“These tweets are published by a public official clothed with the authority of the state using social media as a tool of governance and as an official channel of communication on an interactive public platform,” noted Judge Barrington D. Parker.

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Blocked critics

In 2017, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed the case on behalf of seven people who were blocked by Trump from his personal account after they criticised the US President for his policies. Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s Executive Director, said that government officials can’t exclude people from public forums simply because they disagree with their political views.

“The Supreme Court should reject the White House’s petition and leave the appeals court’s careful and well-reasoned decision in place,” Jaffer said in a statement.

Katie Fallow, Senior Staff Attorney at the Knight Institute, said that public officials across the country now use social media as their main means of communicating with their constituents. She opined that blocking people from these forums denies them access to important information and deprives them of the opportunity to engage with the officials who represent them.

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(Image: AP)