Donald Trump sued by free speech advocates on Twitter; US president blocked them over critical comments

New York: First Amendment advocates are suing President Donald Trump, saying some of his critics have been unconstitutionally blocked from following him on Twitter. [caption id=“attachment_3769359” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Donald Trump. AP[/caption] The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The lawsuit says Twitter has become an important public forum for the president and he frequently makes public announcements on his @realdonaldtrump account. The lawsuit asked a judge to stop Trump and his media team from blocking critics from following his personal account. A spokeswoman for government lawyers declined to comment. The lawsuit says blocking people from following Trump’s account was a viewpoint-based restriction that the Constitution doesn’t permit. The director of the Knight First Amendment Institute is Jameel Jaffer, who worked for years with the American Civil Liberties Union. Meanwhile, the under fire president defended his eldest son Don junior who is under fire for his meeting with a Russian lawyer during last year’s US presidential campaign  and hailed his “transparency” for releasing emails about the talks. “My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency,” Trump said in a statement to reporters read by White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.