A Little Bird Told Everyone But Me: Establishing Public Forums in the Twittersphere
Open Access
- Author:
- Gonzalez Morales, Adilson
- Graduate Program:
- Media Studies
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- November 09, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Matthew Jackson, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Rob Frieden, Committee Member
Matthew Paul Mcallister, Committee Member
Matthew Paul Mcallister, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Twitter
Public Forums
Immemoriality
Intersectionality
Citizenship
Trump
First Amendment
Freedom of Speech
Social Media - Abstract:
- In Knight v. Trump, a group of seven individual Twitter users, represented by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, sued President Donald Trump for blocking them and preventing them from interacting with his @realDonaldTrump account. The plaintiffs claimed that this blocking effectively 1) suppressed their capacity to engage in the digital political discourse taking place through comment threads, 2) denied them equal access to important digital public spaces, and 3) violated their right to petition the government. This thesis focuses on Knight v. Trump as an example of the increasing use of Internet-based platforms as the primary sites of public debate and the implications of this for democratic discourse. The main question that I seek to answer is whether the blocking of users on social media platforms by government officials violates users’ constitutional rights under the First Amendment. More broadly, this work will explore what role should the First Amendment play in establishing a robust public sphere on social media where members of marginalized communities are provided an equal opportunity to participate in democratic debate. In addition to traditional legal analysis, this thesis will draw from feminist legal scholarship and critical race theory to highlight the importance of these public forums for marginalized communities. Through a combination of legal analysis and intersectional feminist critique, this thesis will evaluate how public officials’ control over social media accounts impacts the ability of individuals to participate in the public sphere. Moreover, this thesis makes a case for the radical, yet well-grounded argument that just like parks and public squares, digital public forums should also be classified as traditional public forums with the highest level of protection for First Amendment rights.