Former US President Donald Trump, who was banned or removed from the internet platforms- Facebook, Twitter and Google after the violence that erupted in Capitol Hill by a mob of Trump supports. In response to that, Trump announced on Wednesday that he is going to file a lawsuit against the said three platforms.
Donald Trump has decided to take legal actions against Google, Facebook, Twitter and their respective CEOs- Sundar Pichai, Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg. The former president made the announcement at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He was accompanied by two leaders from America First Policy Institute, the pro-Trump nonprofit group who are in support of Trump’s lawsuits.
While announcing his decision, Trump said, “I stand before you this morning to announce a very important… development for our freedom and freedom of speech. In conjunction with the America First Policy Institute, I’m filing, as the lead class action representative, a major class-action lawsuit against the big tech giants, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, as well as their CEOs.”
“There is no better evidence that big tech is out of control than the fact that they banned the sitting president of the United States earlier this year,” Trump added. “If they can do it to me they can do it to anyone.”
Donald Trump announced that he will file the lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida, seeking “injunctive relief” against “shameful censorship of the American people.”
Trump said, “While the social media companies are officially private entities, in recent years they have ceased to be private with the enactment and their historical use of Section 230, which profoundly protects them from liability… It is in effect a massive government subsidy, these companies have been co-opted, coerced and weaponized by government actors to become the enforcers of illegal, unconstitutional censorship.”
Trump called social media companies “the de-facto censorship arm of the U.S. government.”
Earlier this year, big tech giants and social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube (owned by Google) had barred Trump form their platforms citing Trump’s alleged involvement and contribution to the Captiol Hill violence on January 6.
At the time, Twitter had announced, “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them – specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter – we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,”