This could turn into a major legal battle as former President Donald Trump announced he will file a lawsuit against Twitter, Google, and Facebook accusing them of alleged censorship. Google owns YouTube, which is why Google was targeted.
Each of the platforms had previously removed the former president after the incident that took place at the Capitol on January 6 when his supporters had breached the building, per a report on Fox News.
The report says this will be a class-action lawsuit with Donald Trump taking role as the lead plaintiff. Trump will claim that he’s been censored by each of the three big tech companies and provided a statement from New Jersey, as reported:
“I stand before you this morning to announce a very important… development for our freedom and freedom of speech,” Trump said. “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.”
After the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump continued to state that he won the election and would not concede. Trump claimed that the election was stolen by Democrats and that was also part of the reason that the three big tech companies – Google (YouTube), Facebook, and Twitter had banned him from their platforms.
The other reasons that likely tied into the banning of a former president, was the big tech accusations that Trump specifically “contributed to the violence” on January 6, during his speech that occurred not far from the Capitol where the big incidents of the day took place.
Despite Trump’s opinion on the election, and Joe Biden being the official winner, Trump believes that’s not an offense someone should be banned for.
Further in the Fox News report is more statements from Donald Trump:
“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,” Trump said. “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.”
He added that “this was especially clear during the pandemic,” citing policies against contradicting health experts and the fact those companies suppressed information alleging that the coronavirus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Trump says he’s also suing the CEO of each platform as part of this, with those being Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Jack Dorsey (Twitter), and Sundar Pichai (Google).
The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) will lead the lawsuit. It’s a nonprofit run by Trump allies and members of the former Trump administration.
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