Former US President Donald Trump filed lawsuits suing social networking sites Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube, and their CEOs, for wrongful censorship after the platforms took various steps to ban or block him from posting during the 2020 US Election.
Trump, who faced one impeachment, 26 accusations of sexual misconduct and about 4,000 lawsuits when in power, filed the lawsuits in the US District Court in Miami, claiming Facebook, Twitter and Google violated the right to freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
In a move to increase his popularity, Trump is seeking class action status for the lawsuits, meaning he would represent the interests of other users of Twitter, Facebook, and Google’s YouTube who allege they have been unfairly silenced. He filed similar lawsuits against the CEOs – Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichal respectively.
“We will achieve a historic victory for American freedom and at the same time, freedom of speech,” Trump said from his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
A lawyer said that Trump’s claim the social media giants acted for the state had failed repeatedly failed in the courts before.
“Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t work for the government, Jack Dorsey doesn’t work for the government,” Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and a co-director of the High Tech Law Institute, said.
“The idea that somehow, magically, we can treat them as an extension of the government is illogical.”
It’s clear Trump needs the bans to be overturned to stand a chance at the 2024 election.
