I find Twitter distasteful, annoying, even stupid. I sometimes wonder why I should care about that particular “micro-blogging” platform.
But since it is a big deal to others, I struggle to understand.*
Joining me in the struggle are our two most famous political Twitterers, President Donald Trump and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
The president lost in court the other day, with the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals telling him he must no longer block users on the social media platform.
Now AOC finds herself in a similar pickle. On Tuesday, a former Democratic New York Assemblyman filed a lawsuit in federal court against the popular freshman U.S. Representative for doing the same thing Trump had been doing: blocking users on Twitter based on their personal viewpoints.
The litigant surmises that AOC had blocked him “apparently because my critique of her tweets and policies have been too stinging.”
Ouch?
“Twitter is a public space,” insists this Democrat, Dov Hikind, “and all should have access to the government officials on it.”
This puts me in a pickle, too. I am all for government transparency — and I do think officials and representatives should not be completely insulated from the citizens they serve. But we don’t have a right to follow them into their bedrooms or bathrooms.
So, high-profile federal employees who in any way discuss public matters on social media should not be allowed to block Americans from seeing their posts. But take pity on the poor pols: they should be able to mute users, that is, keep others from cluttering up their social media experience.
Oddly, the lawsuit does not address this muting option.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* I even use it, occasionally.
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