Trump sues Big Tech executives over censorship

• Former President Donald Trump is filing a class-action lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter, Google, and their executives.
• The lawsuit claims that the social media giants censor their users in violation of the First Amendment.
• Trump was suspended from Facebook, Twitter, and several other platforms over his role in the January 6 Capitol riot.

Former President Donald Trump is suing big tech companies Facebook, Twitter, and Google, as well as their executives, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai, over alleged censorship of their users.

“I’m filing as the lead class representative a major class-action lawsuit against the big tech giants, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter as well as their executives,” Trump announced during a press conference on Wednesday.

The lawsuits were filed in the Southern District of Florida. Trump is asking the court to impose punitive damages on the tech giants, adding that there is a possibility of other lawsuits in the future.

Over the past year, social media platforms were pressured to crack down on several posts that spread misinformation about the pandemic, social issues, and the 2020 presidential election.

When Trump questioned the legitimacy of mail-in voting, Twitter marked several of his tweets with a warning about misinformation.

His Facebook and Twitter accounts were ultimately suspended over his role in the January 6 Capitol riot. His Twitter account was banned indefinitely, despite his plans to run again for office in 2024. His Facebook account, meanwhile, was suspended until at least January 2023. Payment platforms PayPal and Stripe also banned him for the same reason.

The former president declared, “Our case will prove this censorship is unlawful, unconstitutional, and completely unAmerican.”

Back in January, experts told Insider that the online platforms’ move was within their legal power since “the First Amendment is a constraint on the power of government,” not on the private sector.

Trump and his allies have previously claimed that online platforms promote the liberal agenda and censor conservative viewpoints. However, data has shown that right-wing content continues to flourish online.

The right’s beef with Big Tech has pushed many Republicans to turn to alternative platforms such as Parler, which is lenient on its users’ posts.

Fox News host Dan Bongino is also developing an alternative payment platform for conservatives, AlignPay. He told the Washington Post that his service aims to combat “cancel culture,” referring to Stripe’s Trump ban.

A new social media app, GETTR, was also recently unveiled by a former Trump aide. But the site was hacked during its official launch day on Sunday, affecting many of its users, who were mostly Trump allies.

Source: Insider