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2nd Circuit Rules That Politicians Cannot Ban People From Their Twitter Page


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The Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that President Trump cannot block Twitter users from his official account, finding that the practice is discriminatory.

 

The ruling upholds a lower court ruling that also found Trump cannot block the Twitter users.

 

The president uses his Twitter account to make announcements, from personnel changes within his administration to the implementation of new policies.

 

The judges wrote "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."

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/452160-appeals-court-rules-trump-cant-block-people-on-twitter

 

Now, I believe that there's members here who have been blocked from Illinois politician Twitter pages?

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Applying this historically, was there ever a ruling that forced the presidents to actually read letters sent to them? If he trashes the letters from some people that really bug him is he breaking a law?

I think the sticking point is when you block someone on Twitter they can't even look at your page, so he was essentially blocking them from seeing his posts on public policy. Just because you can see the posts just by logging off was deemed too much of an inconvenience... I look forward to the 2A being given such strict scrutiny!
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I think the sticking point is when you block someone on Twitter they can't even look at your page, so he was essentially blocking them from seeing his posts on public policy....

The SC has held that "freedom of speech" encompasses the freedom to access the speech of others. It's an argument used against banning books in libraries. It's not sufficient to justify a ban in one library by saying people could just go to other libraries.

 

Twitter and Facebook et al. still have their content policies, though, so the company can still delete content that violates their terms of service. For example, if someone tries to post a some porn video (which is not actually illegal) and claim it's political speech, I doubt social media companies would let it stand. What happens if they delete a post just because it expresses a not-illegal opinion that conflicts with their policy?

 

I can foresee another case (or set of cases) where courts establish social media content policies. Yeah, that should be a totally smooth process, devoid of conflict or comment.

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The solution is simple. If you want to block somebody, block everybody. Delete your account. When I deleted my Facebook account I owed to have Facebook scrub me from their servers. It's an available option. They give you 30 days to change your mind, then get to work. The next 60 days they do the scrubbing. Everything is suppose to be completed in 90 days total.

 

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

 

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The solution is simple. If you want to block somebody, block everybody. Delete your account. When I deleted my Facebook account I owed to have Facebook scrub me from their servers. It's an available option. They give you 30 days to change your mind, then get to work. The next 60 days they do the scrubbing. Everything is suppose to be completed in 90 days total. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

Facebook doesn't ever scrub your data. They keep it forever.

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The solution is simple. If you want to block somebody, block everybody. Delete your account. When I deleted my Facebook account I owed to have Facebook scrub me from their servers. It's an available option. They give you 30 days to change your mind, then get to work. The next 60 days they do the scrubbing. Everything is suppose to be completed in 90 days total. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

Facebook doesn't ever scrub your data. They keep it forever.

Not according to them. They give you the option when you request to have your account deleted. If they aren't scrubbing then they are committing fraud.

 

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

 

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I'm glad that this is all coming to fruition. No politician should be able to block users like that on public accounts. Hopefully this will send a clear signal to all public officials that this behavior isn't acceptable.

 

I'd be curious to see if Brady unblocks folks. If not, he's opening himself up to a lawsuit.

Case law says its a public forum when there's a near or total monopoly and 1A applies. Can't even censor something like "go f--- yourself" as it's also protected speech. Digress.

 

What about Morrison censoring her official FB page? I think we need to tee up some of these clowns for 1A lawsuits. They can't win. She got caught red-handed. Sue them into oblivion because they haven't received the message. It takes in-your-face blunt force like a lawsuit to make them see and even then it's not guaranteed.

 

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

 

 

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The solution is simple. If you want to block somebody, block everybody. Delete your account. When I deleted my Facebook account I owed to have Facebook scrub me from their servers. It's an available option. They give you 30 days to change your mind, then get to work. The next 60 days they do the scrubbing. Everything is suppose to be completed in 90 days total. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

Facebook doesn't ever scrub your data. They keep it forever.

Not according to them. They give you the option when you request to have your account deleted. If they aren't scrubbing then they are committing fraud.

 

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

 

Facebook isn't going to delete their most valuable product: your information. If you want to believe they have, more power to you, but they haven't exactly been honest about this stuff in the past:

 

 

 

As Schrems went through the document, he found items he thought he had deleted, such as messages, status updates and wall posts. He also found personal information he says he never supplied, including email addresses that had been culled from his friends' address books.

 

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/privacy-versus-facebook

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I'm glad that this is all coming to fruition. No politician should be able to block users like that on public accounts. Hopefully this will send a clear signal to all public officials that this behavior isn't acceptable.

 

I'd be curious to see if Brady unblocks folks. If not, he's opening himself up to a lawsuit.

Case law says its a public forum when there's a near or total monopoly and 1A applies. Can't even censor something like "go f--- yourself" as it's also protected speech. Digress.

 

What about Morrison censoring her official FB page? I think we need to tee up some of these clowns for 1A lawsuits. They can't win. She got caught red-handed. Sue them into oblivion because they haven't received the message. It takes in-your-face blunt force like a lawsuit to make them see and even then it's not guaranteed.

 

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

 

 

I'm all for public officials being dragged over the coals on this issue. They should all know better.

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I just ran a Google search for my Facebook profile. I could not find it. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

It's like when you "format" a hard drive or a "thumb" drive. All it does is erase and format the FAT table that is the "index" for everything on the drive. Your info is still there but can't be found because the index was erased. It can still be found by a forensic specialist.

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The solution is simple. If you want to block somebody, block everybody. Delete your account. When I deleted my Facebook account I owed to have Facebook scrub me from their servers. It's an available option. They give you 30 days to change your mind, then get to work. The next 60 days they do the scrubbing. Everything is suppose to be completed in 90 days total. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

Facebook doesn't ever scrub your data. They keep it forever.

 

Not according to them. They give you the option when you request to have your account deleted. If they aren't scrubbing then they are committing fraud.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

Facebook isn't going to delete their most valuable product: your information. If you want to believe they have, more power to you, but they haven't exactly been honest about this stuff in the past:

 

As Schrems went through the document, he found items he thought he had deleted, such as messages, status updates and wall posts. He also found personal information he says he never supplied, including email addresses that had been culled from his friends' address books.

 

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/privacy-versus-facebook

That article is 7 years old. Care to find something more recent? I've looked. I cannot find my profile.

 

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

 

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The solution is simple. If you want to block somebody, block everybody. Delete your account. When I deleted my Facebook account I owed to have Facebook scrub me from their servers. It's an available option. They give you 30 days to change your mind, then get to work. The next 60 days they do the scrubbing. Everything is suppose to be completed in 90 days total. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

Facebook doesn't ever scrub your data. They keep it forever.

 

Not according to them. They give you the option when you request to have your account deleted. If they aren't scrubbing then they are committing fraud.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

Facebook isn't going to delete their most valuable product: your information. If you want to believe they have, more power to you, but they haven't exactly been honest about this stuff in the past:

 

As Schrems went through the document, he found items he thought he had deleted, such as messages, status updates and wall posts. He also found personal information he says he never supplied, including email addresses that had been culled from his friends' address books.

 

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/privacy-versus-facebook

That article is 7 years old. Care to find something more recent? I've looked. I cannot find my profile.

 

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

Just because your profile was erased doesn't mean your information was. There is a difference between the two.

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Point is we don't believe Zuckerberg when he says it's "deleted." We don't believe Sheryl Sandberg when she says it's "deleted." NOTHING is ever deleted. EVERYTHING is sitting in the NSA data center in Utah. And I'm betting that Zuckerbook doesn't "delete" a profile and all (any) of its content just moves it to another server. Some sort of "watch this hand" while the other "hand" is committing a crime. Remember, you are the product and you have NO right to your data once it's out there. It's property of Facebook. Well, not completely since states have enacted biometric privacy laws, property interest in all pictures of one's face, but FB has just given the middle finger to those anyway.

 

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

 

 

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