Supreme Court Ends Four-Year-Long Lawsuit Challenging Trump’s Blocking of Critics on Twitter
On April 5th, the Supreme Court of the United States vacated the Second Circuit’s decision in Knight First Amendment Institute v. Donald Trump, a long-running lawsuit challenging former President Donald Trump’s pattern of blocking critics from his personal Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump.
First Amendment Watch and FIRE Release New Campus Speech Modules
As the end of the current semester quickly approaches, First Amendment Watch and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education are already thinking ahead to this fall’s freshman orientation season on America’s college campuses. Use our latest orientation modules to talk about student press freedom and student's online speech rights.
Do Twitter and Other Social Media Platform Bans on Trump Violate the First Amendment?
Twitter, Facebook, and a host of other privately-held companies have imposed bans on President Donald J. Trump, believing that his incendiary comments on January 6, 2021, helped fan the flames of outrage that resulted in an assault on the Capitol. Trump and others have decried the social media blackout as a direct assault on conservative points of view, and as a draconian targeting of only certain types of speech.
Today, most political and social discussion occurs in the digital sphere, often on peoples' social media platforms. Seeing this, some public officials have opened Facebook and Twitter accounts to share important updates and engage with their constituents. But what happens when the official wants to remove a user who is posting critical feedback? This teacher guide uses the Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump to show how First Amendment principles like public forum and viewpoint discrimination apply online.
Student Facing Expulsion for Social Media Posts Sues Naval Academy
The 21-year-old claims he is being singled out because of his political beliefs, and that students who wrote posts advocating for violence against police officers were not punished. Though the First Amendment generally protects public university student's right to express themselves online, experts say the extent of those protections may be different in the context of military institutions.
Federal Judge Temporarily Halts Trump’s WeChat and TikTok Ban
On Sunday, September 20th, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump’s executive order that banned WeChat and TikTok from operating in the U.S. Trump signed the executive order on August 6th, citing national security concerns that the Chinese-owned messaging app and the video app were collecting data on Americans.
Tech Group Sues Over Trump’s Executive Order that Targets Social Media Platforms
On June 2nd, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s executive order that authorizes federal agencies to review Section 230, a law that protects social media companies from lawsuits over the content published on their sites.
D.C. Circuit Rejects Laura Loomer’s First Amendment Lawsuit Against Tech Giants
The D.C. Circuit refused to revive a lawsuit filed by the conservative blogger Laura Loomer against Twitter, Facebook, Apple, and Google for allegedly conspiring to censor conservative views.