On Tuesday a federal appeals court in New York ruled that President Donald Trump, when using his infamous @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, cannot block his critics. That decision upholds an earlier district court ruling.
The court found that an account used by a public official to conduct "all manner of public purposes" cannot exclude those who disagree that official from participating in an open, online discussion.
The Justice Department defended the president in the case, which was first brought by the Knight First Amendment Institute in 2017. The Institute represented several critics of the president who have been "blocked" by the @realDonaldTrump account.
In an emailed statement, Justice Department spokesperson Kelly Laco said, "We are disappointed with the court's decision and are exploring possible next steps. As we argued, President Trump's decision to block users from his personal twitter account does not violate the First Amendment."
However, the court found that the account was not "private," meaning the government had engaged in "viewpoint discrimination," which violates the First Amendment.
When asked by Cheddar whether Twitter would stop the @realDonaldTrump account from blocking other users, the social media company declined to comment.
"Public officials' social media accounts are now among the most significant forums for discussion of government policy," said Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight Institute, in a press release Tuesday. "This decision will ensure that people aren't excluded from these forums simply because of their viewpoints, and that public officials aren't insulated from their constituents' criticism."
Trump has frequently announced his policy intentions ー and other ruminations on politics ー through that account, though he also has access to an official presidential Twitter account run by the White House.
Also unhelpful to the Justice Department's argument that the account is private is that multiple White House officials have referred to the @realDonaldTrump account as an official source of information. For instance, in 2017, then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that tweets from that account should be considered "official statements by the President," and the White House itself has included statements made from the account in collections of official White House records.
The White House Director of Social Media, and assistant to the president, Dan Scavino, helps Trump run that account.
Volatility continues to be the name of the game when it comes to crypto. Bitcoin, the most valuable digital token, saw a small jump today - one of several small rallies throughout the month of March. Caitlin Cook, vice president of crypto education company Onramp Academy, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
As of March 2022, almost 200 Anti-LGBT+ bills have been introduced in state governments across the country — especially directed at the transgender community. Human Rights Campaign State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley joined Cheddar News to discuss the deluge of legislation. "Unfortunately we are seeing these bills come at transgender youth from every conceivable direction," she said. "Every support that a trans kid has, whether that's their parents, whether that's their family, whether that's their teachers or their guidance counselors or their coaches, whether it's their teammates or the librarians and the books that they read, whether it's curriculum, whether it's even just the ability to acknowledge that LGBTQ people have existed throughout history and are important in the fabric of modern American society. The bills that we are seeing filed across the country are targeting all of those pieces."
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week seemed to have put out a video that urged Ukrainians to put down their arms and surrender to Russia. It was later revealed that it was a “deepfake,” a computer-generated video to mimic the Ukrainian leader. Cheddar News speaks with security expert Morgan Wright about how the technology is being used in the war in Ukraine.
After scrutiny over the negative impact on the mental health of children, social media apps have begun adding stricter limitations to parental controls. Jim Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization focusing on recommendations for entertainment platforms, joined Cheddar News to talk about the changes, why they might not be enough, and what parents can do to help. "It's almost that the companies — whether they're Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, or whatever — have to start the process from the beginning of designing the product," he said. "They have to be much more clear about age verification so that a 12-year-old and 11-year-old can't get on there." Steyer also pushed for federal legislation to reign in the issue.
As Big Tech companies from the U.S. like Google and Apple managed to build market dominance overseas, the European Union has decided to curb what it sees as monopolistic growth. Greg Martin, the co-founder of Rainmaker Securities, joined Cheddar News to talk about how the impact of the antitrust regulations being adopted. "I think there's a lot of great outcomes here, but those will be far down the road [because] I do think there's some interoperability things that need to be worked out technologically," he said. "But it's going to be really good ultimately for the consumer in my opinion."
Tenicka Boyd is a digital creator making content that reflects her two passions: activism and style. The TikTok star joined Cheddar News to talk about her platform and new looks this Spring. Boyd admitted that at first she wanted to remain anonymous on the social media platform before finding her passion. "I just joined TikTok hoping that no one would find me, and I started creating colorful content," she said. "I didn't know that you could monetize this and really do it full time, and I just followed my passion because I realized that you can have multiple different lives and do multiple different things."
Catching you up on what you need to know on March 25, 2022, with Ukrainian forces retaking Kyiv, 300 deaths reported from the bombing of a theater used as a shelter in Mariupol, U.S. regulators ditch a climate review of natural gas projects, the 94th Academy Awards, and more.
North Korea says it test-fired its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile under the orders of leader Kim Jong Un, who vowed to continue expanding his nuclear arsenal while preparing for a “long-standing confrontation” with the United States.
Ukrainian authorities in the besieged ruins of Mariupol say that about 300 people died when a Russian airstrike blew up a theater where hundreds of civilians were sheltering.
