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Twitter As A Public Forum

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TheBigA

Is social media a public forum? Or a private platform? It depends on who is using it, according to one federal court.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ap...ted-first-amendment-by-blocking-twitter-users

The president blocked users who disagreed with him. A federal court today ruled that abridged the other user's first amendment rights. But the reason is because the president's Twitter account was deemed a "public forum." He is the head of the government. The first amendment says the government can't abridge freedom of speech. Blocking Twitter users is abridging speech. That rule apparently doesn't apply to non-government users, or Twitter itself. What came into play is the way the president uses his Twitter account.
 
TheBigA said:
Is social media a public forum? Or a private platform? It depends on who is using it, according to one federal court.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ap...ted-first-amendment-by-blocking-twitter-users

The president blocked users who disagreed with him. A federal court today ruled that abridged the other user's first amendment rights. But the reason is because the president's Twitter account was deemed a "public forum." He is the head of the government. The first amendment says the government can't abridge freedom of speech. Blocking Twitter users is abridging speech. That rule apparently doesn't apply to non-government users, or Twitter itself. What came into play is the way the president uses his Twitter account.
Click to expand...
The president can't actually block Twitter users. He can block himself from seeing what he disagrees with, or those that disagree with him from seeing what he says. At least that's how Facebook works.
 
vchimpanzee said:
The president can't actually block Twitter users. He can block himself from seeing what he disagrees with, or those that disagree with him from seeing what he says. At least that's how Facebook works.
Click to expand...

The court decision says he can't use the block function:

“We do conclude,” the opinion said, “that the First Amendment does not permit a public official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official purposes to exclude persons from an otherwise‐open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees.”

Once he leaves office, he can use the block function again.
 
Well you can't have it both ways.

A lot of people here have argued that social media are the property of private companies,
who have sole discretion to edit/delete/ban users, etc.

This ruling seems to indicate that social media is more of a public space where everybody's
right to use it must be preserved.

The answer at the moment appears to be that it's both, and which one applies to you
depends largely on your political affiliations.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
The answer at the moment appears to be that it's both, and which one applies to you
depends largely on your political affiliations.
Click to expand...

No, it depends on if you are in the government or not. It's a public space when the account belongs to a public official.

The company is still allowed to ban users who break the company's stated terms of service, and yes, it's up to their discretion.

If the banned user disagrees, they can take the company to court, and once again it'll be up to a judge to rule.

Unless Congress take this up, and says TOS no longer apply, and a company can't be sued for what users say or do.

Or perhaps the government buys Twitter, in which case it becomes a publicly owned space.
 
That's an interesting ruling and I'm not quite sure what I think. I can see the page of every sherriff and local official filling up with obscenities and get-rich-quick schemes pretty quickly if users cannot be banned and comments can not be deleted.
 
gr8oldies said:
That's an interesting ruling and I'm not quite sure what I think. I can see the page of every sherriff and local official filling up with obscenities and get-rich-quick schemes pretty quickly if users cannot be banned and comments can not be deleted.
Click to expand...

I don't think the ruling said anything like that. I doubt any sheriffs or any other officials use Twitter the way the president uses it.

Twitter can still ban you, and if you threaten the president, you'll likely get a visit from the FBI.
 
vchimpanzee said:
The president can't actually block Twitter users. He can block himself from seeing what he disagrees with, or those that disagree with him from seeing what he says. At least that's how Facebook works.
Click to expand...

That statement makes no sense if trump wants to block someone on twiiter he can.
 
https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/trump-looks-to-enforce-fairness-on-social-media

AN update

President Donald Trump has signaled that social media platforms need to be fair--specifically talking about not censoring conservative speakers--and said his Administration would try to make sure they were.

He called Thursday (July 11) a "historic day" and said that never before had so many social media "journalists and influencers" come together, with power he suggested that trumps that of the traditional media he so frequently attacks, and did again.

Related: Summit Billed as Social Media Bashing Exercise

The "historic day" the President was referring to was a meeting, or what appeared to be more of an audience for the President and a couple of speakers, at the White House, where conservative bloggers and others gathered for what was billed as a "social media summit" to talk about the impact of social media. The President said the room represented a half billion followers online, and said even that might be a low number.
Click to expand...
 
Forum is this as we chat on with topics.Twitter and FB is just a platform of mixed bag of topics in one stream...Thats what I understand whats going on with them,.I dont like neither way before 2016 came around.I did moderate posts in my YouTube page until I dumped most of the videos awhile back...If anybody says bad crap.I'll dump it.

I cant say anything about dumping bad tweets and stuff on FB since I dont use them but the user of the page should have control on moderating it and dump what they dont like...
 
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TheBigA said:
Is social media a public forum? Or a private platform? It depends on who is using it, according to one federal court.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ap...ted-first-amendment-by-blocking-twitter-users

The president blocked users who disagreed with him. A federal court today ruled that abridged the other user's first amendment rights. But the reason is because the president's Twitter account was deemed a "public forum." He is the head of the government. The first amendment says the government can't abridge freedom of speech. Blocking Twitter users is abridging speech. That rule apparently doesn't apply to non-government users, or Twitter itself. What came into play is the way the president uses his Twitter account.
Click to expand...

Depends I have never thought of it either way, Twitter you have to sign up for an account to use just like the other social media. But it s not like you are adding friends like on Facebook, and Donald Trump is really the first president to really make use of Twitter? Does anybody ever remember Barack Obama having an account, or using it somewhere in the 8 years he served as president? I don't know if you have seen The Social Network, where in the movie you see in the beginning Mark Zuckberg had it set up where students of selected colleges, originally just Harvard could use Facebook. And now today anybody can have a Facebook page (if they want one). But tinting of it I would say that Social media is a public forum, as it won't be private if you had to an approved user to use it, but could imagine depends on you use your account, that whoever runs it could ban your account.
 
TheBigA said:
Obama set up the @POTUS account in 2015. He used it very rarely.

https://www.reuters.com/video/2015/05/18/obama-joins-twitter-sends-his-first-twee?videoId=364265855
Click to expand...


gr8oldies confirmed it, Barack Obama more or less acted more like a real president, and yet that there are people that believe him to be the worst. I would have to imagine that Hilrary Clinton would have followed his lead, but funny is Trump is a lot older then Brack Obama and yet he uses it and Barack very rarely (if ever) used to.
 
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