'Trump can't block Twitter critics'

Donald Trump. Pic /AFP

New York: A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that President Donald Trump did not have the right to block critics on his Twitter account.

A three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals said any attempt by the president to block critics responding to his tweets amounted to "unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination", the Efe news reported.

The appeals court, which is based in New York City, upheld a lower court ruling in the case of Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump that the President's Twitter account constituted a "public forum".

The appeals court said its ruling was based on the principles in the US Constitution's First Amendment, which protects freedom of expression.

"We do conclude, however, that the First Amendment does not permit a public official who utilises 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," Judge Barrington D Parker wrote in the decision.

"The public presentation of the Account and the webpage associated with it bear all the trappings of an official, state-run account," Parker said.

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