President Donald Trump‘s use of Twitter has long beena controversialcomponent of his presidency, in part because of his frequent use of the “block” button, which the president has unleashed on a number of notable actors, authors and activists who have used Twitter as a platform to criticize him and his administration.
But his critics scored a victory on Wednesday when a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that blocking his foes from viewing his tweets violates the First Amendment — because his Twitter feed is an official government account.
“Well well well we meet again @realDonaldTrump,” model and authorChrissy Teigen, whom Trump blocked in July 2017,tweetedWednesday after the judge’s ruling was announced.
According toThe New York Times, seven Twitter users and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia Universitysued the president, claiming Trump’s account is part of the government and blocking them violates their First Amendment rights.
Here’s a running list of notable people who have received the “@arealDonaldTrump blocked you” message on Twitter — but should be able to read his tweets again soon:
- Laura Packard
The morning of Sept. 20, she woke up and discovered that Trump had blocked her. Now, she has one request for Trump,she toldThinkProgress— and it isn’t that he’ll lift the block: “I just wish that he would listen.”
But Packard addressed Wednesday’s ruling, helpfully explaining how Trump can unblock users en masse.
- Rosie O’Donnell
Trump and O’Donnell have been feuding for years, but it took until July 23, 2017, for him to finally block her on Twitter. It was a tweet that mentioned the instantly infamous unsubstantiated Russian dossier, which alleged that Russian spies had explicit information about Trump, which finally prompted him to block the former talk show host
Just a few hours after sending the tweet, O’Donnell found herself blocked.
She’s still tweeting about him, though — and has asked others toforward along her messages.
- Anne Rice
The president denied theInterview With the Vampireauthor one of her favorite pastimes — personally responding to Trump’s many tweets. She frequently tweeted about the president, his policy decisions, and yes, his tweets. In fact, it’s almost all she tweets about even now, after she’s been blocked. It was a now-deleted tweet about the Republican health care plan that finally got her banned from his account on June 26.
Jeff Vespa/WireImage; Alex Wong/Getty
The tweet read:
“The Trump-GOP health care plan is a tax cut for the rich. Millions will lose coverage. A complete rip off.”
Now, like O’Donnell, Rice hopes that her messages will still find their way to Trump through her followers.
4.Chrissy Teigen
Teigen shared a screenshot of the notification that Trump had blocked her, writing: “After 9 years of hating Donald J Trump, telling him ‘lol no one likes you’ was the straw.”
Francois Mori/AP
- Stephen King
He’s an expert on twists and turns, but not even King could have predicted that the president would block him on Twitter. Before the block, in mid-June, King had frequently tweeted criticisms of Trump, but rarely tagged the president’s twitter accounts (@realDonaldTrump or @POTUS). However, there were some pretty tough-worded tweets, so it’s possible they ended up on Trump’s radar.
- Marina Sirtis
The actress andStar Trek: The Next Generationstar can pinpoint her blockage to a single tweet. The whole thing happened pretty quickly. First, she tweeted this on May 8:
Six minutes later, she tweeted that she had been blocked. Sometimes, these things happen fast.
Bess Kalb
Andy Signore
By the next night, he was blocked.
- Angelo Carusone
Trump’s blocking of Carusone, the president of the progressive watchdog group Media Matters for America, left him at a loss.
“Sigh. The last time I @ mentioned him on Twitter was back in February. So what gives? Does he really not have better things to do right now?” Carusone wrote.
- Holly Figueroa O’Reilly
source: people.com
