Donald Trump, the former US president, has filed a lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter, and Google with the claim that he is a victim of censorship.
According to BBC, the lawsuit is also targeted at the CEOs of the three tech giants, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai.
Trump was suspended on social media during the Capitol riots, led by his supporters in January 2021.
In a statement, Trump said the lawsuit was, “a very beautiful development for our freedom of speech”. He also accused social media of espousing misinformation.
“We are demanding an end to the shadow-banning, a stop to the silencing, and a stop to the blacklisting, banishing, and cancelling that you know so well,” he said.
The lawsuit requests that the alleged censorship should be put to a halt, lamenting that if it could be done to a president, then it could be done to anyone. None of the tech companies has responded to the lawsuit, BBC reported.
Twitter suspends Trump permanently
Trump’s favourite social media platform banned him in January in the wake of the Capitol riots. The former president of the US claims that the tweet that got him banned had, “the most loving words”.
According to the Twitter blog, the tweets that resulted in Trump’s ban for “glorification of violence” were from 8 January 2021, two days after the rioting in the nation’s capital. The riot followed after continuous claims that the election was rigged in Joe Biden’s favour.
He wrote that the “great patriots” who voted for him will have “a giant voice” and “will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form”. In another post, he said would not attend President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Trump’s allies release plan to take on big tech
Trump’s Republican allies in Congress released a memo detailing their plan “to take on Big Tech”. The agenda calls for antitrust measures to “break up” the companies, and a revamping of a law known as Section 230, BBC reported.
Section 230, which Trump tried to nullify when he was president, essentially stops companies like Facebook and Twitter from being liable for the things that users post. It gives the companies “platform” rather than “publisher” status.