Just more grist for the mill of the argument that major social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter/X should be regulated like utilities. Elon Musk evidently decided that Twitter/X was above the law and declined to obey a court order to produce material which Jack Smith had subpoenaed. He f**ked around and found out, to the tune of $350,000, which is the price of a house in most of the country, and a darn nice one, too, in many parts. Washington Post:
A lower-court judge, Beryl A. Howell, ruled in March that Twitter, now renamed X, had to comply with a sealed search warrant issued by the special counsel and pay $350,000 for missing a court-ordered deadline by three days. The filing also reveals that Howell had found reason to believe that should the search warrant be made public, Trump might engage in obstructive conduct or flee prosecution.
Twitter appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which in July upheld Howell’s ruling. Now that Trump has been charged with four felonies related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, the appellate decision has been unsealed.
Attorneys for Twitter did not oppose the search warrant but argued that a gag order preventing the company from alerting Trump to the search violated the First Amendment. The company argued that it should not have to hand over the records until that issue was resolved. Howell sided with the government, finding Twitter in contempt Feb. 7 for failing to comply with the search warrant. She gave Twitter until 5 p.m. to produce the records, with sanctions of $50,000 per day, to double every day that Twitter did not comply. Twitter produced the records three days later.
Everything in right-wing world is First Amendment these days. Every single thing. It doesn’t matter if you’re inciting a riot, obstructing justice, acting in contempt of court, it all gets rationalized as being under First Amendment protection. Naturally, the court found that Twitter’s First Amendment rights were not violated because, “‘the nondisclosure order was a narrowly tailored means of achieving compelling government interests’ — protecting the integrity of a grand jury investigation.'”
This next part you’ll love: the judge didn’t want Trump to know about any of this, for fear he would destroy evidence.
The following month, Howell upheld the nondisclosure order and imposed a $350,000 contempt sanction on Twitter. She found that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that disclosing the warrant to Trump “would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation” by giving him “an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, [or] notify confederates,” according to the appellate ruling. Howell also found the former president might “flee from prosecution,” although the special counsel’s team later said they did not intend to make that argument and it was not included in her final analysis.
Elon Musk loves to burn money on vanity projects. That much is clear. Again, social media outlets, at least the two major ones, Facebook and X, should be regulated like utilities. That is completely in the public’s interest.
I agree completely Ursula. And I have always thought they should be regulated. Just like all the utilities we all use!
Taking important utilities like this out of the craven hands of RWNJ billionaires and putting them under public control is a good idea. It’s what we do with police, fire, defense, roads, and air traffic.
Even though that’s socialism.
Well, I wouldn’t say the police are controlled by the public, unless RWNJ’s are the only public that counts.
First Amendment my a$$. If I were to go on twitter or whatever the f**k Elon wants to call it and said something along the lines of him being a gigantic, arrogant a$$hole exceeded in those traits only by Trump, and go on to note that “people say” he enjoys getting together with Deven Nunes to f**k pigs and even Deven’s cow (now and then to change things up) my own account would be GONE from his supposed bastion of free speech in less than the blink of an eye!
Also, if I were to go online and also work with various individuals plugged into working with the homeless, the poor and lower income working class folks down in FL and spend a couple of months talking up Trump and his pals in that big, fancy Mar A Lago place, with it’s fancy furnishings, well air-conditioned, well-stocked kitchen, plenty of space and fancy pool too and how unfair ti was that they didn’t get to enjoy any of that, even for a day and that “people should do something about it, and set a specific date for everyone to gather and “make a statement”, to “do what SHOULD be done” to make a point about how unfair it all was, to be ready to “raise hell” because “it will be wild” and people showed up and I stood on a platform with a loud sound system, pointed to Trump’s club and said we ought to march right in there and take it over guess what?
Trump and others (including the law and prosecutors) would say I’d crossed WAY the hell over the line of free speech!
All “social media needs to be e4xtremely strictly regulated…as in if you break the rules once, you get a 10 day suspension. Second offense and you are banned for life! Hate speech, defamation, lies, propaganda, and threats (even the vaguest of threats) are NOT free speech!
it’s 3 card Monty, good for tourists, not in a court of law. Please remember Cohen was buds with McArthur. It’s old but true.
Ma’am, we’re Los Angeles detectives
just the facts…
The judge obviously thought the content of trump’s tweets was seriously incriminating, enough for her to consider him a flight risk. If trump’s trials are broadcast (any or all of them), they will rivet a billion eyes. Justice must not only be served, but also seen to be served.