In a rather surprising turn of events, political journalist Rebecca Pilar Buckwalter Poza (RPBP) won a suit she, along with seven other journalists, filed against against US President Donald Trump, over the President blocking users on Twitter who tweeted against him.
RPBP and company filed a suit against President Donald Trump and his communications office over charges of hindering the US constitutional right to freedom of speech, press and access to information.
The journalist claimed in her arguments that since the President’s personal Twitter feed is present on a public forum and as he uses that platform extensively to disseminate information, blocking a user would prohibit them from getting access to potentially important news and from communicating with the President directly.
Moreover, blocking a user because they differ from the President’s point of view in itself would violate the blocked user’s rights to “petition the government for grievances.”
When the final hearing for the case happened on 23 May in New York, a federal judge ruled in favour of the journalists, declaring that the President’s act of blocking any user on Twitter was indeed unconstitutional and a direct violation of the First Amendment to the United States’ Constitution. Further, if any person holding public office chooses to block users on Twitter, they shall be subjected to a similar legal action, as per the judge.
The decision came as big blow to the US President, but was seen as a critical and exemplary victory for the First Amendment.
But there’s a catch – the decision by the court would not result in the President un-blocking all the users he has had blocked in the past (that would take weeks!), but since the issue is such a pressing one, The White House will be expected to make a statement and the President would need to ensure to the masses that such actions will not repeat themselves in the future.
RBPB took to Twitter to share her historic victory with the world and naturally many people were overjoyed with the judge’s decision.
(With inputs form Daily Kos.)
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