美国国家公共电台 NPR First Amendment Advocates Charge Trump Can't Block Critics On Twitter

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

President Trump¹ is facing a lawsuit² for blocking people from his personal Twitter account. This week, some First Amendment³ advocates joined the suit, and they are making a novel argument about the right to communicate with the president in the digital age. NPR's Laura Sydell reports.

LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE⁴: If there's one thing most Americans can agree on, it's that President Trump likes to tweet. Philip Cohen, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, likes to tweet, too. And he saw an opportunity to express himself to the president on the president's @realDonaldTrump account.

PHILIP COHEN: I noticed right away that his Twitter feed was a place where people congregated⁵ and exchanged views - mostly caustic⁶ but occasionally even constructive⁷. So that was the place to go to express myself.

SYDELL: Cohen has a verified account on Twitter. That's when you have a following, and they confirm you are who you say you are. That means his tweets got to the top of the president's feed. Cohen set up an alert, so that he could know when the president tweeted.

COHEN: If I replied right away, I could get lucky and have a lot of people read my tweets. And then all of a sudden, he blocked me.

SYDELL: So did you troll the president?

COHEN: I was basically civil. I didn't use a lot of profanity. I didn't harass⁸ people individually. I mostly made graphical memes with slogans on them that said things like corrupt⁹, incompetent¹⁰, authoritarian¹¹.

SYDELL: Cohen says once he was blocked, his tweets about the president reached fewer people. So he believes it's censoring¹² his ability to criticize the government. Cohen is now one of the plaintiffs in a groundbreaking lawsuit brought by the Knight¹³ First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Katie Fallow is a senior attorney at the institute.

KATIE FALLOW: There are these longstanding first amendment principles where, if the government opens up a space or hosts a kind of public forum¹⁴ where they allow the public to speak, they can't exclude someone from that forum based on their views.

SYDELL: @realDonaldTrump is the president's personal account. It was created before he became president. But Fallow says the president has used it to make official announcements.

FALLOW: Like the replacement¹⁵ for the FBI director after he fired James Comey and the transgender ban and a lot of other policy announcements he's made for the first time via Twitter.

SYDELL: But it isn't just that the president uses the account to make official announcements. He also uses it to interact with the public. Josh Geltzer says it's like a virtual town hall. Geltzer is a law professor at Georgetown University. He, along with other advocates, filed a brief in support of the blocked Twitter users. He says, you can exclude people from a town hall for lack of space but not for their opinions. He points to a recent case in Virginia where a federal court found the county could not block an individual from an official county Facebook page.

JOSH GELTZER: Which was quite similar to here - to shut out voices that weren't obscene or bullying¹⁶ but voices that simply expressed criticism or unwanted viewpoints.

SYDELL: No one from the Justice Department was available in time to speak to NPR. However, in its brief, the government argues that this is the president's private Twitter account. He's using it just like everyone else. Twitter's a private platform with its own rules. The president has a right to block people. All this makes for a novel case in the digital age. If the court finds against the president, it could certainly have implications on how government officials choose to use social media in the future. Laura Sydell, NPR News.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

3 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 congregated   

（使）集合，聚集( congregate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The crowds congregated in the town square to hear the mayor speak. 人群聚集到市镇广场上来听市长讲话。
• People quickly congregated round the speaker. 人们迅速围拢在演说者的周围。

6 caustic   

adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的

参考例句：

• He opened his mouth to make a caustic retort.他张嘴开始进行刻薄的反击。
• He enjoys making caustic remarks about other people.他喜欢挖苦别人。

7 constructive   

adj.建设的，建设性的

参考例句：

• We welcome constructive criticism.我们乐意接受有建设性的批评。
• He is beginning to deal with his anger in a constructive way.他开始用建设性的方法处理自己的怒气。

8 harass   

vt.使烦恼，折磨，骚扰

参考例句：

• Our mission is to harass the landing of the main Japaness expeditionary force.我们的任务是骚乱日本远征军主力的登陆。
• They received the order to harass the enemy's rear.他们接到骚扰敌人后方的命令。

9 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

10 incompetent   

adj.无能力的，不能胜任的

参考例句：

• He is utterly incompetent at his job.他完全不能胜任他的工作。
• He is incompetent at working with his hands.他动手能力不行。

11 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

12 censoring   

删剪（书籍、电影等中被认为犯忌、违反道德或政治上危险的内容）( censor的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Therefore, exhibitors shall not make use of these materials before censoring. 展商在审查前不可使用这些资料。
• The company then said it would end self-censoring search results, putting it at odds with Beijing. 随后该公司表示，将停止自我审查搜索结果，从而与中国政府发生对抗。

13 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

14 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

15 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

16 bullying   

v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈

参考例句：

• Many cases of bullying go unreported . 很多恐吓案件都没有人告发。
• All cases of bullying will be severely dealt with. 所有以大欺小的情况都将受到严肃处理。 来自《简明英汉词典》