Trump,Twitter,and the First Amendment

Abstract

This article considers the constitutional implications of US President Donald Trump’s use of Twitter. This issue arose in the recent case of Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University v Trump, where a US federal court considered for the first time whether Trump’s actions in blocking users from his personal Twitter account violated the First Amendment to the US Constitution. In exploring the US court’s treatment of this question, the article will consider the challenges that arise in applying established free speech doctrine to newly emerging technologies, concluding with some reflections from an Australian perspective.