Columbia Undergraduate Law Review Fall 2021

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COLUMBIA UNDERGRADUATE LAW REVIEW

Presidential Speech Acts in the Digital Age: The Illusion of Authenticity Kayla McKeon | Amherst College Edited by: Natalia Vasylyk, Andrea Schlitt, Anna Nuttle, Gabriel Fernandez, Daisy Lawrence, Claire French, Jinoo Kim Abstract Human communication is constantly shifting as advancing technologies enhance our ability to instantaneously connect with each other and the broader world. Social media currently plays a central role in the transformation of social relations, societal trends, and communicative practices. This article discusses the use of social media as a political tool to connect with the general population, garner political support, and disseminate crucial information. More specifically, this piece concentrates on the constitutional implications of former President Trump’s revolutionary use of Twitter as a political tool. Because there exists no longstanding history of presidential speech on social media, Trump’s testing of the executive branch’s power via Twitter will come to define the constitutional limits of digital presidential communication. The focus of this article’s analysis is on the presidential use of two particular digital speech acts: blocking and deletion. Public Forum Doctrine challenges Trump’s ability to block citizens on Twitter, suggesting that he is in violation of First Amendment rights. Similarly, the Presidential Records Act opposes presidential Tweet deletion in mandating that all presidential records—including Tweets—must be preserved in their unaltered state for posterity. Next, this paper examines how Trump’s Twitter use has revolutionized American politics, arguing that digital activism has become a valid form of civic engagement in response to Trump’s controversial Tweets. Finally, this piece postulates that the public’s perception of Trump’s digital persona as authentic and transparent garners misguided support from his followers.

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