Photo by Tom Brenner/Getty Images
Last week, the Knight First Amendment Institute urged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to unblock critics on Twitter. The Knight Institute has led a push to treat politicians’ social media accounts as public forums, filing a successful lawsuit against President Donald Trump for his Twitter-blocking habits. Ocasio-Cortez argued that the issue was more nuanced, though: she said she was blocking “less than 20 accounts” and that it was for harassment, not political viewpoints.
Whether that’s accurate, the law suggests that blocking should be a last resort. A legal ruling from last year encouraged politicians to use Twitter’s “mute” function, which lets someone simply avoid seeing tweets from a user they dislike. It’s a fair way to…
How making politicians unblock trolls could hurt speech online
Source: New feed
