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Comment by koolba | Hacker News Reader

> The judge said the comment section of Trump’s personal account, @realDonaldTrump, is a public forum and that blocking users on the basis of political speech is a violation of their free-speech rights under the First Amendment.

If this applied to @potus I might agree with it but applying it to his personal account is rubbish. You could easily extend that same logic to say that any elected official, at any level of government, can't block communications from anyone on their personal accounts.

Trump using his personal account to comment on "work" (i.e. being President) doesn't de facto make it a work account no more than me complaining about my job on my personal email turns it into a work email.

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But is it his personal account anymore? It's a verified account with the description of "45th President of the United States of America". When he speaks (tweets) he speaks as the POTUS. Doesn't matter if it's from the @potus account or @realdonaldtrump account.

> But is it his personal account anymore?

Yes. For example one of his tweets from earlier today isn't a matter of public policy, it's his opinion on the current state of affairs: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/99928232531686604...

> It's a verified account with the description of "45th President of the United States of America".

Many people on Twitter have "Works @company" or "$TITLE as Company" on their verified accounts. That doesn't make their account the property of their employer. It's purely a declarative, factual, statement.

> When he speaks (tweets) he speaks as the POTUS. Doesn't matter if it's from the @potus account or @realdonaldtrump account.

I'm saying it does. Whether it's in a personal capacity or public capacity matters. In this case there's a clear separation too as he's got access to the @potus and he seems to use that for official business.

Re: your 2nd point about other people with twitter profiles that say "works @company". They often have disclaimer that simply says "Thoughts are my own". The president does not.

Additionally, the Presidential Records Act seems to cover non-official electronic communication and states that all communication through non-official channels still need to be recorded.

https://www.archives.gov/about/laws/presidential-records.htm...

> Re: your 2nd point about other people with twitter profiles that say "works @company". They often have disclaimer that simply says "Thoughts are my own". The president does not.

And if they don't they're still your personal accounts. People add those as a failsafe against their employer's being harassed. It has no legal significance as the account is personally yours regardless of whether you disclaim your employer.

> Additionally, the Presidential Records Act seems to cover non-official electronic communication and states that all communication through non-official channels still need to be recorded.

They are being recorded. What's being argued here is whether the POTUS can block other users from his personal account.

And apparently the judge disagrees with you. You could say the sky is green and the grass is blue. Doesn't really matter. The white house has declared @realdonaldtrump as the official account and thus it is.

> And apparently the judge disagrees with you.

Well a judge disagrees. I'm curious to see where this ends up on appeal as the track record of rulings against the POTUS by liberal judges isn't exactly something one would want to bet on.

> You could say the sky is green and the grass is blue. Doesn't really matter.

As could the judge and just because one judge ruled a particular way doesn't make it a settled matter.

> The white house has declared @realdonaldtrump as the official account and thus it is.

Feel free to cite a source on that and explain what makes it "official". A sibling comment has a linked to a whitehouse.gov web page that has a link to @realDonaldTrump though I'd argue that doesn't make mean anything.

@realDonaldTrump is his official account, as per whitehouse.gov [1]

[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20180523194453/https://www.whiteh...

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