Trump, with all the subtlety of a 1930s dictator in a bad mood, has gone off on a bit of a rant and threatened twitter with legislative action as Trump’s reaction to anyone standing up to him is always to threaten them with some kind of vindictive legislation or, failing that, a spiteful little budget cut.
However, it seems to me that all that twitter is doing is commenting on his comments. How can he possibly then prevent this without violating the constitution?
Back in 2017 a number of twitter users who Donald Trump had blocked from viewing his tweets took him to court on the basis that he was acting in his public role and therefore nothing he said should be hidden. They won. This was the case Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Recently Twitter hid one of his tweets “....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
Trump protests that this wasn’t meant as incitement. Perhaps. But then Henry II didn't tell anyone to kill Thomas à Becket…
As to who sanctioned the partial delete
of this tweet it appears to be CEO Jack Dorsey personally.
Dorsey's rational for "fact checking" Donald's
other tweets is that his statement that voter fraud in postal ballots is
easy may encourage voters to believe they don't have to register to
vote when they do. None-the-less one has to wonder if Jack would be this brave if he thought Donald was going to win the 2020 election or it's just a symptom of the twitter president becoming a lame duck.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment