If Trump’s tweets are official government statements, then the comment threads cannot be closed off to critical voices. “They were blocked for having criticized the president for his decisions as president,” Jaffer said in court. Lawyers for the blocked individuals say the case is not about Twitter, a private company, but about how Trump uses Twitter as president. Then-press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters in June 2017 that Trump’s tweets should be considered “official statements by the president.” The National Archives has said Trump’s tweets must be preserved as presidential records. The Justice Department in court filings drew parallels between the president’s personal Twitter account and the physical properties he owned before taking office.

Source: Washington Post March 26, 2019 11:03 UTC