Donald Trump said that he is suing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and their respective companies, alleging that they’ve violated First Amendment rights.
The former President of the United States said at a press conference that he’s the lead representative in the class-action lawsuits.
He also said that he has recruited the “best lawyers — the tobacco lawyers,” to make sure that liability protections provided to those tech firms under section 230 are “at a very minimum changed — and at a very maximum, taken away.”
"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."
Previously, Trump was banned from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in the wake of the U.S. Capitol riots on January 6.
Saying that Trump spread misinformation and the promotion of violence or hateful content, Twitter has permanently banned him, while Facebook considers reinstating his accounts. As for YouTube, the video-streaming giant says that it plans to lift the suspension “when we determine that the risk of violence has decreased.”
When Trump was kicked out of all major social media networks in the U.S., the internet saw a significant reduce in the reach of his inflammatory rhetoric speeches and statements. Social media interactions about him fell 91% between January and May, according to data from NewsWhip.
But Trump was entirely not happy. Without his megaphones, he was left with no way to reach his followers and fans.
His son, Donald Trump Jr. tried to help, by asking Elon Musk to create a social media to "save free speech". Later, he even created his own platform to "tweet".
Trump made the announcement on the same day that reports claimed he allegedly said Adolf Hitler “did a lot of good things.”
It should be noted though, that Trump is known to file lawsuits, and losing them. The former President has a record of threatening others through legal actions, but not following through.
Read: Social Media, A Place For Social Delusion
To The Wall Street Journal, Trump said:
Social media has become as central to free speech as town meeting halls, newspapers and television networks were in prior generations. The internet is the new public square. In recent years, however, Big Tech platforms have become increasingly brazen and shameless in censoring and discriminating against ideas, information and people on social media – banning users, deplatforming organisations, and aggressively blocking the free flow of information on which our democracy depends.
No longer are Big Tech giants simply removing specific threats of violence. They are manipulating and controlling the political debate itself.
This flagrant attack on free speech is doing terrible damage to our country. That is why in conjunction with the America First Policy Institute, I filed class-action lawsuits to force Big Tech to stop censoring the American people. The suits seek damages to deter such behaviour in the future and injunctions restoring my accounts.
Our lawsuits argue that Big Tech companies are being used to impose illegal and unconstitutional government censorship.
Through these lawsuits, I intend to restore free speech for all Americans – Democrats, Republicans and independents. I will never stop fighting to defend the constitutional rights and sacred liberties of the American people.
Further reading: After Banning Donald Trump, Things Are 'Going To Be Much Bigger' Than Just That
