Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza, a political writer, is one of seven people suing President Donald Trump because they were blocked by his Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump.
Buckwalter-Poza and her co-plaintiffs believe that being blocked by Trump violates their first amendment rights by shutting them out of the public forum that occurs in the threaded Twitter conversations, which act as a comment section for each of the president’s tweets.
Twitter highlights the top responses to tweets, though it’s unclear exactly how it works, but verified accounts and tweets with a lot of retweets and favorites can sometimes float to the top, so these interactions are seen by tens of thousands of people.
I’ve written before about the bewildering experience of being one of the first people to reply to Donald Trump. Any tweet that ascends to the top of the thread can suddenly be picked up by crazed Twitter users from every aspect of the political spectrum.
“It’s an extraordinary thing to be able to engage with people in this marketplace of ideas and see what other people are thinking and what I’m thinking,” Buckwalter-Poza told The Outline. “And of course, removing people from that is distorting the conversation that’s happening under [Trump’s tweets.]”
It’s almost as if Trump stood on the White House balcony, declared his thoughts of the day over a loudspeaker to thousands of people gathered below, and then everyone argued about it. Also these people are trapped and hate being there, but seem unable to leave. They are in a prison of their own mind.
To be fair you didn't win the WH: Russia won it for you. pic.twitter.com/iPUXKopd9B
— RebeccaBuckwalterPoz (@rpbp) June 6, 2017
The lawsuit raises an interesting legal question: Is Trump’s Twitter account, which the president himself has called “very powerful,” and “modern day presidential,” a governmental forum where speech is protected by the First Amendment? Is cutting off access to that forum equivalent to unconstitutional censorship?
That’s what the suit, which names President Trump, White House social media director Dan Scavino Jr., and press secretary Sean Spicer as defendants, is alleging. “President Trump’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, has become an important source of news and information about the government, and an important public forum for speech by, to, and about the President,” the suit reads. “In an effort to suppress dissent in this forum, Defendants have excluded — ‘blocked’ — Twitter users who have criticized the President or his policies. This practice is unconstitutional, and this suit seeks to end it.”
“The White House acts unlawfully when it excludes people from this forum simply because they’ve disagreed with the president.”
“President Trump’s Twitter account has become an important source of news and information about the government, and an important forum for speech by, to, or about the president,” said Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s executive director in a press release. “The First Amendment applies to this digital forum in the same way it applies to town halls and open school board meetings. The White House acts unlawfully when it excludes people from this forum simply because they’ve disagreed with the president.”
The Southern District Court of New York will evaluate those arguments when it hears the lawsuit, filed on July 11 with the help of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The suit asks the court to order the defendants to unblock the seven plaintiffs on Twitter.
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Buckwalter-Poza was blocked after she responded to one of the president's tweets in June. “Sorry folks, but if I would have relied on the Fake News of CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, washpost or nytimes, I would have had ZERO chance winning WH,” the President of this great nation tweeted. Buckwalter-Poza replied: “To be fair you didn't win the WH: Russia won it for you.” After sending that tweet, which has over 3,000 retweets and 9,000 likes, Buckwalter-Poza said she was blocked by @realDonaldTrump.
Being blocked by the President has hindered her ability to engage with other people in the threaded comments under his tweets, she said, blocking her from engaging in “critical public conversations.” While there are various ways Buckwalter-Poza could continue to participate in conversations about the president’s tweets, being blocked prevents her tweets from being included in the thread generated by Twitter.
“It’s hard not to take being blocked by the president personally.”
Holly Figueroa, an activist from Seattle, Washington, is also blocked by the President. “When I saw President Trump recently say on the news that Twitter is his way of communicating with the American people, it felt like a punch in the gut,” Figueroa said in a Knight Foundation press release. “What about me, I thought. I’m one of the American people. It’s hard not to take being blocked by the president personally.”
