A Federal appeals court just ruled that Trump cannot block people from his Twitter account just because the criticize him or mock him.
And it’s not just Trump:
I just bumped the original GQ thread with this news.
Of course He can block them. Laws don’t apply to Him.
Good.
I wonder in Twitter already has something embedded in the software that allows them to turn off the block button on specific users?
Or, are they going to have to write something specifically for Trump?
Or are we just gonna have to trust Trump will honor the court order? (lol)
Will this apply to accounts that can reasonably identified as bots or socks?
The next SCOTUS challenge. Bots are people too!
Apparently now some users are suing AOC for the same thing after being blocked by her, citing this ruling.
Please explain to me what “being blocked” entails? And, can a good laxative help?
Presumably those violate the Twitter terms of service and are best handled by Twitter. Mr. Trump is free to report on bots himself, and I see no reason Twitter can’t provide a point man to handle such inquiries.
~Max
Think of it like a public forum, the building. Mr. Trump’s twitter account is like a corner of the forum, Mr. Trump is on the pedestal and various people are sitting around, having quiet conversations among themselves. Sometimes Mr. Trump replies to the audience, but they outnumber him and most of the time he just ignores them. Conveniently, no matter how loud the audience is Mr. Trump can always be heard because it’s his corner and he has the pedastal.
Now when Mr. Trump blocks someone on Twitter, that means that person is kicked out of his corner of the forum. They can still hear Mr. Trump, but Mr. Trump can’t hear them. Neither can any of the audience members in Mr. Trump’s corner hear the blocked person unless they get up and leave Mr. Trump’s corner.
~Max
Thanks, but I’m not asking for an analogy. I’m asking about Twitter itself, as I know nothing of how Twitter works. What does it mean that Trump has blocked people on Twitter?
Unless AOC also uses social media for official government business, those users don’t have a leg to stand on.
Oh, sorry. This is alluded to in the OP:
When Mr. Trump makes a posting through the Twitter service, or “tweets” in common parlance, [DEL]members of the public[/DEL] other Twitter users are allowed to then comment on his post or on eachother’s comments to that post. If Mr. Trump blocks a user, 1) that user cannot directly view Mr. Trump’s posts while signed in, 2) that user cannot directly view other user’s comments on Mr. Trump’s posts while signed in, 3) that user cannot comment directly in response to Mr. Trump’s posts, and 4) that user cannot receive notifications when Mr. Trump makes a new post.
I say directly because there is a feature called “re-tweeting” whereby a user can put Mr. Trump’s tweet on their own feed. I don’t think users blocked by Mr. Trump can do this, but those users can see other users’ re-tweets and comments from other users’ feeds and activity logs.
ETA: How to block accounts on X
~Max
From the court case:
Thanks, Max S and Ravenman. Very helpful.
Next up: I understand there’s something new called “television” that lets you watch talkies at home and have the town news-criers right in your sitting room! I’ll come back here if I have any questions about it. 
Even better, think of it like a public forum, such as the Straight Dope Message Boards. Blocking on Twitter is like ignoring on these boards, except users you ignore cannot see any of your posts or threads or any posts in your threads, and all of their previous posts in your threads are removed for everybody. They can still see everything when logged out, and they can still see other people who quote you in other people’s threads. Also they don’t receive subscription notices when you post in a thread they subscribed to.
~Max
There’s definitely an argument that she is. Have you seen what she talks about on her private twitter account? It’s awash with legislative business. She didn’t even create a separate official/professional account until last Dec and it’s only seen 45 tweets. Trump’s argument that his only lightly used @POTUS account was the official government business and he could do what he wanted on his personal account didn’t fly.
She even made an alliance with Ted Cruz last month on Twitter to write and propose a bill limiting former members of Congress from becoming lobbyists. It’s going to be hard to describe that use of her personal account as anything other than government business by a legislator.
Yes, I think the AOC case will fall under the goose/gander statute.
I think that’s going to be the case. I look forward to the court deliberations on the “mute” function.
Does Twitter not have an “ignore” function he can use? (honestly don’t know, I don’t do Twitter)
Yes, it is called “muting”. If Mr. Trump just didn’t want to read his critics, he could mute them and we would be none the wiser.
~Max