{"id":400336,"date":"2017-07-12T12:29:18","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T12:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/07\/12\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\/"},"modified":"2017-07-12T12:29:18","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T12:29:18","slug":"trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/07\/12\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump sued for blocking people on Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">President Donald Trump has been party to an eye-watering 4,000 lawsuits over the last 30 years,\u00a0US media say.<\/p>\n<p>And now the mogul turned commander-in-chief has attracted one more, after seven people sued him for blocking them on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Trump is an avid user of the social media forum, which he deploys to praise allies and lambast critics.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit was filed by the\u00a0Knight First Amendment Institute, a free speech group at Columbia University.<\/p>\n<p>The seven Twitter users involved claim their accounts were blocked by the president, or his aides, after they replied to his tweets with mocking or critical comments.<\/p>\n<p>People on Twitter are unable to see or respond to tweets from accounts that block them.<\/p>\n<p>The legal complaint argues that by blocking these individuals, Mr Trump has barred them from joining the online conversation.<\/p>\n<p>It calls the move an attempt to \u201csuppress dissent\u201d in a public forum \u2013 and a violation of their First Amendment right to free speech.<\/p>\n<p>White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and the president\u2019s social media director Daniel Scavino are also named in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Mr Spicer said Mr Trump\u2019s tweets were considered \u201cofficial statements by the president of the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The president\u2019s @realDonaldTrump Twitter account has 33.7m followers, while the official @POTUS account has 19.3m.<\/p>\n<p>Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, said the president\u2019s love of Twitter means it has become \u201can important source of news and information about the government\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe First Amendment applies to this digital forum in the same way it applies to town halls and open school board meetings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe White House acts unlawfully when it excludes people from this forum simply because they\u2019ve disagreed with the president.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the institute, the account\u2019s blocking habit should be a concern for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Why? Because even if they can read the president\u2019s tweets, what they see has been consciously cleansed of criticism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump has been party to an eye-watering 4,000 lawsuits over the last 30 years,\u00a0US media say. And now the mogul turned commander-in-chief has attracted one more, after seven people sued him for blocking them on Twitter. Mr Trump is an avid user of the social media forum, which he deploys to praise allies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":396766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trump sued for blocking people on Twitter - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/07\/12\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Trump sued for blocking people on Twitter - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"President Donald Trump has been party to an eye-watering 4,000 lawsuits over the last 30 years,\u00a0US media say. And now the mogul turned commander-in-chief has attracted one more, after seven people sued him for blocking them on Twitter. Mr Trump is an avid user of the social media forum, which he deploys to praise allies [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/12\\\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/12\\\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Trump sued for blocking people on Twitter\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-12T12:29:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/12\\\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":334,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/12\\\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/12\\\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/12\\\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/12\\\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\\\/\",\"name\":\"Trump sued for blocking people on Twitter - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/12\\\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/12\\\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-12T12:29:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/12\\\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/12\\\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Trump sued for blocking people on Twitter - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/07\/12\/trump-sued-for-blocking-people-on-twitter\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Trump sued for blocking people on Twitter - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"President Donald Trump has been party to an eye-watering 4,000 lawsuits over the last 30 years,\u00a0US media say. 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