Everyone Should Be Able to Follow His Account

How should the leader of the free world tweet? President-elect Trump likes to use Twitter, and his love of 140-character-based messages won’t likely change once he enters the White House. This election, more than any other, highlighted the power of social media to influence public opinion. Trump took to Twitter to, among other things, denounce the media, criticize individuals and spread his campaign messages to his more than 15 million followers as @realDonaldTrump. President Obama indicated before the election that the official @POTUS Twitter account he now uses, with more than 11 million followers, would be available to the next president.

In a modern democratic society keeping the social media account of a president open to all ought to be a matter of custom.

Should a president’s Twitter account be permitted to block anyone, including journalists? Blocking is a Twitter feature designed to help its users address well-documented harassment and abuse. If a user blocks you, you can’t see that person’s tweets, nor can you “retweet” them in order to comment on them. While blocking is a tool to fight harassment, a user can block a follower for any reason. (Blocking does not make it impossible to view a person’s tweets, although it is much more difficult to do so.)

Trump has displayed at times an open hostility to the traditional media, with The New York Times as a favorite target. The president-elect has also shown signs that he intends to depart from presidential conventions regarding the news media, such as always traveling with the White House press pool. Blocking individual reporters would be one more restriction on press access to the president.

Surprisingly, the question doesn’t have an easy legal answer, but the best policy answer is no. As a private company, Twitter is not itself considered a public forum regulated by the First Amendment. Twitter sets the rules for its users and might, for example, create special rules for the President or other public figures. As for Trump, when he assumes office in 2017, his speech is probably government speech. The First Amendment permits the government to control its own speech, so blocking followers may be permissible. The right choice for Trump, however, both now and when he assumes office, would be to refrain from blocking people — and to unblock those now unable to see his account.

Like granting the White House press pool access, the president’s social media obligations may ultimately be decided as a matter of custom. In a democratic society that values transparency and accountability, keeping the social media account of a president open to all ought to be part of these customs. Twitter and other social media platforms are part of the new normal, a shared reality that demands new best practices about press freedom and good governance.