I received some good news today.
Back in July of 2017, I was blocked by Donald Trump on Twitter after tweeting at him:
While there are ways to get around a block and see Trump’s Twitter feed, the block prevents me from ever commenting on any of his tweets or tweeting directly at him. I was teaching about 25 girls from around the world at a private school on the day that I was blocked, and upon hearing that I was blocked, they broke into a spontaneous, joyous dance around me, seeing this as a badge of honor and a reason to celebrate.
It was a beautiful moment, but I was still upset.
It wasn’t right.
This week The Knight Foundation, whose attorneys represented the plaintiffs in the Knight Institute v. Trump lawsuit, which alleged that the President’s actions in blocking individuals from the @realDonaldTrump account violated the First Amendment, contacted me.
On May 23, 2018, the judge in the case ruled in favor of The Knight Foundation and their clients and issued an order declaring that blocking the plaintiffs from @realDonaldTrump because they criticized him in reply tweets violated the First Amendment.
Following that decision, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit were unblocked.
I sent an email to the Knight Foundation a few months ago, asking if I could join the lawsuit or become involved in some way. This week, an attorney from the Knight Foundation replied, offering to forward my information to the Department of Justice for the purposes of getting me and other Americans in my situation unblocked as well.
No guarantees that it will happen. Thus far Trump has only lifted the block on the nine defendants in the case, but it’s a start.
Either way, it’ll probably make a good story one day.
