Whether or not it is legal to block others on SNS such as Twitter starts trial at the Supreme Court, especially focusing on blocking by government officials



Social media services such as Twitter are now becoming part of the social system. With such social media services, it is possible to prevent others from seeing posts by blocking specific individuals. However, the use of this block function by politicians and others has raised voices of opposition from both inside and outside the country, and in the United States, it has become a hot topic that the Supreme Court trial will begin.

FYI: Will Blocking remain legal for all in the USA? Supreme Court to rule on issue. from Bob Wyman on 2023-04-24 ([email protected] from April 2023)

https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-swicg/2023Apr/0093.html



The fact that the use of blocking functions on social media services was to be examined by the Supreme Court was covered by the Advisory Committee of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University and Bob , who also works as a staff member of W3C . Mr Wyman . Wyman points out that blocking functions in social media services can have a significant impact on the use and even design of entire social systems.

On April 24, 2023, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases challenged. These two lawsuits determine whether it is legal for individuals to block accounts on social media.

The lawsuit, filed as 'No. 22-324,' seeks to determine whether a public official's blocking of an individual from their personal social media accounts violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. thing. However, this is limited to ``when government officials such as politicians use accounts to introduce their work on social media or to communicate matters related to their duties to the public''.

No. 22-324 - Supreme Court of the United States
https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/22-324.html



Another lawsuit is filed as 'No. 22-611.' The lawsuit argues that a public official's social media activity can constitute state conduct only if the official uses the account to perform government duties or in accordance with his or her authority. will be examined.

No. 22-611 - Supreme Court of the United States
https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/22-611.html



Regarding these two lawsuits, Mr. Wyman said, ``If the Supreme Court rules that it is illegal to block a specific individual, the SNS side that has the blocking function may prohibit government officials from creating accounts. Alternatively, even an SNS account personally operated by a government official may be prohibited from using the blocking function.'



In Japan, when Taro Kono , Minister of Consumer Affairs of the Liberal Democratic Party, appeared on Nico Nico Live Broadcasting in the past, he declared that he would 'block it openly ', and in fact media officials were blocked from his Twitter account. There is also

This has become a big topic in Japan, and Mr. Kono has been called 'flaming minister' and 'block defense minister' on the Internet. In addition, Mr. Kono replied to the voice 'Why are you blocking the people?'

Is Taro Kono illegal? It is blocked by Minister of Flames # Mr. Kono due to Egosa block problem-Togetter
https://togetter.com/li/1771282

Taro Kono Block Defense Minister-Togetter
https://togetter.com/li/1426180

Some of the comments are as follows.




in Web Service, Posted by logu_ii