Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez balked at a free-speech group opposed to the congresswoman using Twitter’s “block” function to keep critics from engaging with her account.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, responded Thursday to the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University recently asking her to stop blocking users based on viewpoint.
“Harassment is not a viewpoint,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez replied on Twitter from her widely followed @AOC account. “No one is entitled to abuse.”
“People are free to speak whatever classist, racist, false, misogynistic, bigoted comments they’d like,” the congresswoman continued. “They do not have the right to force others to endure their harassment and abuse.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive, self-described democratic socialist, is currently facing two federal lawsuits brought on behalf of Twitter users who said they have been blocked from interacting with the congresswoman’s account. Both were filed last month shortly after a federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling that found that President Trump had violated the First Amendment’s right to free speech by similarly blocking critics on Twitter.
The Knight Institute subsequently wrote Ms. Ocasio-Cortez this week raising concerns over her blocking Twitter used based on viewpoint, calling the practice “unconstitutional” and urging the congresswoman to reverse course.
“Multiple courts have held that public officials’ social media accounts constitute public forums when they are used in the way that you use the @AOC account, and they have made clear that public officials violate the First Amendment when they block users from these forums on the basis of viewpoint,” said the letter.
“We recognize that you may wish to block users for reasons that are both reasonable and constitutionally legitimate — for example, because their speech is threatening,” the letter continued. “We also recognize that abuse and harassment are significant problems on social media, especially for women and minorities, and that this abuse and harassment can deter speech and political participation that are crucial to our democracy.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez replied Thursday that fewer than 20 of her 5.2 million Twitter followers have been blocked for ongoing harassment and that none are among her constituents.
She also singled out The Daily Caller, a conservative website, and said that the outlet tried to spread bogus, purportedly nude photos of herself by posting them on Twitter in response to her tweets. Geoffrey Ingersoll, the outlet’s editor-in- chief, denied the claim on Twitter and said that the Daily Caller article she was referring to was “debunking” the “fake nudes.”
Dov Hikind, a Jewish activist, and Joey Saladino, a YouTube personality, filed separate lawsuits against the congresswoman last month over being blocked from engaging with her Twitter account. Both suits are currently pending in federal courts in New York.
Department of Justice Lawyers representing Mr. Trump filed court papers last week challenging the appeals ruling that found the president had violated the First Amendment by blocking critics on Twitter, meanwhile. They have asked the case to be reheard by the full Second Circuit Court of Appeals after a three-judge panel unanimously ruled last to uphold the lower court ruling.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.