Former President Donald Trump has not been bashful in expressing his ire towards private social media companies, and he is now taking that frustration to the courts.
Trump announced Wednesday that he has filed a class-action lawsuit against Facebook, Google and Twitter, The Associated Press reported, arguing that he has been inappropriately censored from the private, digital platforms.
The lawsuits, filed in Florida’s southern U.S. District Court, are also directed at the chief executives of those companies, according to the AP.
- “We’re demanding an end to the shadow-banning, a stop to the silencing and a stop to the blacklisting, banishing and canceling that you know so well,” the former president alleged during a press conference at his New Jersey golf course on Wednesday, reported the AP.
Why is Trump suing social media companies?
According to Axios, Trump — who has continued to hint at a 2024 presidential campaign — wants his social media accounts to be restored and is seeking “punitive damages” from Facebook, Google and Twitter.
- Trump’s class-action lawsuit is supported by the Constitution Litigation Partnership, a legal arm of the conservative America First Policy Institute, Axios reported.
- “The law and Constitution are on our side. America is the great country that it is because our Constitution protects our freedoms, including freedom from censorship — this lawsuit ensures that those rights are properly defended,” Constitution Litigation Partnership chair Pam Bondi alleged in a statement Wednesday.
- In a statement on his personal website Tuesday, Trump has continued push the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him — which contributed to his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The former president was permanently barred from Twitter in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 riot and, last month, Facebook determined it would suspend Trump’s account for two years.
- Twitter tossed Trump from its platform in January, citing a “risk of further incitement of violence,” while Facebook had indefinitely suspended Trump from its massive platform at that time.
- Republicans have alleged that private tech companies have broken the First Amendment by banning the then-president and his loyalists from their platforms, even if the speech by those banned parties broke the companies’ rules, the Deseret News reported.
- In the past, Trump has accused the actions of Facebook, Google and Twitter as a “total disgrace and embarrassment to our country,” reported the Deseret News.
The social media companies declined to comment on the announcement of Trump’s lawsuit, the AP and Axios reported.