Former United States President Donald Trump is suing three of the country’s big tech companies – Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s YouTube – over their suspensions of his accounts after a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in January.
Trump filed class action complaints in federal court in Florida, alleging the tech giants are censoring him and other conservatives, reports NPR
The suits call for the court “to order an immediate halt to social media companies’ illegal, shameful censorship of the American people,” Trump said at a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
“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,” he added.
Trump has been shut down from the social media platforms after the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter banned Trump permanently, Facebook has suspended him for two years and YouTube has said it will let him return only “when we determine that the risk of violence has decreased.”
Trump also wants the court to declare a federal law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, unconstitutional. Under this law, internet companies are generally exempt from liability for the material that users post.
In addition to the companies, the lawsuits name Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai as defendants, although not YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.
Tech Companies have not issued any statement yet.
(With Inputs from News Agencies and News Reports)
