Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-197_5ie6.pdf
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BIDEN v. KNIGHT FIRST AMENDMENT INSTITUTE  
AT COLUMBIA UNIV. 
THOMAS, J., concurring 

write  separately  to  note  that  this  petition  highlights  the
principal legal difficulty that surrounds digital platforms—
namely, that applying old doctrines to new digital platforms
is rarely straightforward.  Respondents have a point, for ex-
ample, that some aspects of Mr. Trump’s account resemble 
a constitutionally protected public forum.  But it seems ra-
ther odd to say that something is a government forum when
a  private  company  has  unrestricted  authority  to  do  away
with it. 

The disparity between Twitter’s control and Mr. Trump’s 
control is stark, to say the least.  Mr. Trump blocked several 
people from interacting with his messages.  Twitter barred 
Mr. Trump not only from interacting with a few users, but 
removed  him  from  the  entire  platform,  thus  barring  all 
Twitter users from interacting with his messages.1 Under 
its  terms  of  service,  Twitter  can  remove  any  person  from
the  platform—including  the  President  of  the  United 
States—“at  any  time  for  any  or  no  reason.”  Twitter  Inc., 
User Agreement (effective June 18, 2020). 

This is not the first or only case to raise issues about dig-
ital  platforms.  While  this  case  involves  a  suit  against  a
public official, the Court properly rejects today a separate
petition alleging that digital platforms, not individuals on
those platforms, violated public accommodations laws, the 
First Amendment, and antitrust laws.  Pet. for Cert., O. T. 
2020,  No.  20–969.  The  petitions  highlight  two  important 
facts.  Today’s digital platforms provide avenues for histor-
ically unprecedented amounts of speech, including speech 
by government actors.  Also unprecedented, however, is the
concentrated  control  of  so  much  speech  in  the  hands  of  a
few private parties.  We will soon have no choice but to ad-
dress how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated,
privately owned information infrastructure such as digital
platforms. 

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1 At the time, Mr. Trump’s Twitter account had 89 million followers.