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Trump unblocks critics on Twitter as ordered by court

Published

6 years ago

August 30, 2018

More critics of US Donald Trump found themselves unblocked from his Twitter account on Wednesday , in keeping with a court ruling that he can ’ t shut out opposing viewpoints .
A federal district court judge in May ruled that blocking people from the president’ s @ realDonaldTrump account violated First Amendment free speech rights in a case brought by The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University .
The seven people named in the suit were unblocked as the decision was appealed .

The institute tweeted on Wednesday that it had gotten word that many people on a list of 41 more Twitter users it had given to the Department of Justice had also been unblocked by @ realDonaldTrump .

“ We ’ re pleased to see the White House take steps to comply with the district court ’ s ruling that the First Amendment prohibits the president from blocking Twitter users simply because they have criticized him , ” the institute said .

“ However , we continue to receive reports that individuals beyond those we identified remain blocked from the @ realDonaldTrump account . ”

The institute argued that it was incumbent on the White House to immediately unblock any Twitter users shut off from the president ’ s account because of political viewpoints.

The Justice Department in June vowed to appeal the ruling , which the institute expressed confidence in defending .

( AFP )