特朗普拉黑了我，我要起诉

我从不关心政治，直到去年，两名全副武装的美国警官敲开我的家门，给我送达了一张国会的传票。作为一名医科学生，我曾在斯坦福大学用胎儿组织进行过研究，目的是拯救严重心脏缺陷患儿的生命。但很可惜，这项研究引起了众议院婴儿生命选择调查委员会主席玛莎·布莱克本的愤怒。

这两位警官把我从睡梦中惊醒。这次货真价实的“叫醒服务”让我意识到，科学除了试管和白大褂，还涉及到许多方面。其中的社会和政治因素，是科研人员无法忽视的。

所以，我开始研究社交媒体，希望在政治上发出我的声音。很快我便发现在唐纳德·特朗普总统的推文下面，有许多充满活力的对话。那里就像是一个全国论坛，即使我那个默默无闻的推特账户发出的声音，也会有大批听众。如果社交媒体是海洋，总统先生的推特就是不同海域交汇的地方。它的力量、美丽和混乱，正是言论自由的缩影。

在我发给特朗普的推文中，第一条被广为传播的是一幅政治漫画，庆祝第九巡回法院驳回了穆斯林旅行禁令的裁定。这条推文收到了超过2,000个赞。几天后，我评论了“美国历史上最严重的一次政治迫害”，说这是针对女性的“塞勒姆女巫审判”。这条推文得到了4,000多个赞，并登上推特时刻。我第一次感觉自己的声音得到了倾听。

然后，总统先生把我拉黑了。

让他拉黑我的那条推文，既没有侮辱性的字眼，也不粗俗。我只是说：“Covfefe： 那个不校对自己推特的人，掌握着美国的核武按钮。”在我被总统先生拉黑之前，这条推文得到了1,000多个赞。

许多人可能感觉被总统拉黑是一种荣誉，但我并不这样想。事实上，我感觉这是一种孤立。数以百万计的美国人可以访问这个公共论坛，但我现在却被排除在外。

另外一位被特朗普拉黑的推特用户霍利·菲格罗亚·奥莱利介绍我认识了哥伦比亚大学第一修正案骑士团的首席律师凯蒂·法洛。在与法洛讨论了我的情况后，我同意加入起诉总统拉黑我和其他用户的行列。我们认为，总统拒绝我们浏览和回复他的推文，违反了第一修正案赋予我们的权利。

特朗普曾多次表示，他有“非常强大的社交媒体”，这是避开传统媒体直接与人民对话的一个渠道。他的儿子小唐纳德·特朗普甚至用推特直接向公众披露了与俄罗斯律师之间爆炸性的电子邮件。虽然美国的开国元勋们并没有预见到推特等社交媒体的出现，但他们很清楚言论自由对民主政治的重要性。如果美国总统可以禁止美国公民阅读他在报纸或图书中发布的公告，开国者们肯定会出离愤怒。

现在，我们已经把这些权利扩大到了电视和广播。如果推特成为例外，以后还会出现更多新技术，又该怎么办？阻止美国公民阅读总统的通信内容，将威胁美国的民主、自由和未来。

本文作者尤金·古为范德堡大学医疗中心的住院医师，同时担任Ganogen研究院院长兼CEO。（财富中文网）  

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

I never cared about politics until last year, when two armed U.S. marshals banged on my door to serve me a congressional subpoena. As a medical student, I had performed research with fetal tissue at Stanford University to save the lives of babies with severe heart defects. Unfortunately, that research raised the ire of Marsha Blackburn, chairwoman of the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives.

I was asleep when the marshals startled me out of bed. The literal wake-up call made me realize that science involved more than just test tubes and white coats. There is a social and political component that cannot be ignored.

So I delved into social media to speak out politically. Soon I discovered the vibrant conversations under President Donald Trump's tweets. It was like a national forum where even my small Twitter account could reach a large audience. If social media was an ocean, this was where the president chummed the waters. It was the epitome of free speech in all its power, beauty, and chaos.

My first viral tweet to Trump was a political cartoon celebrating the Ninth Circuit Court's decision to reverse the Muslim travel ban. It got over 2,000 likes. A few days later I made a comment about how the "greatest witch hunt in American history" was the Salem witch trials against women. That tweet got over 4,000 likes and was featured on Twitter Moments. For the first time, it felt like I was finally being heard.

Then the president blocked me.

The tweet that supposedly triggered him was neither abusive nor vulgar. I simply said, "Covfefe: the same guy who doesn't proofread his Twitter handles the nuclear button." It got over 1,000 likes before he hit the block button.

While many may feel that it is a badge of honor to be blocked by the president, it certainly does not feel like that to me. In fact, it feels isolating. Millions of Americans have access to a public forum from which I am now excluded.

Holly Figueroa O'Reilly, another Twitter user blocked by Trump, introduced me to Katie Fallow, lead attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. After discussing my situation with Fallow, I agreed to join a lawsuit against the president to unblock me and many others. We believe it is a violation of our First Amendment rights for the president to exclude us from viewing and responding to his tweets.

Trump stated multiple times that his "very powerful social media" was a way to circumvent traditional media and talk directly to the people. Even his son Donald Trump Jr. used Twitter to disclose his explosive emails with a Russian lawyer directly to the public. While America’s founding fathers may not have envisioned something like Twitter, they certainly knew the importance of free speech to a democracy. They would have been outraged if the president could ban an American citizen from reading his announcements in a newspaper or book.

We have now extended those rights to both television and radio. If Twitter is somehow exempt, so too will be many new and emerging technologies. Blocking private citizens from reading a president’s communications threatens our democracy, our freedoms, and our future.

Eugene Gu is a resident physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and president and CEO of the Ganogen Research Institute.