Former US President Donald Trumphas filed a lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube, claiming that he and other conservatives have been targeted for censorship . However, legal experts say Trump's lawsuit will likely have no impact on the three big tech companies.
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Donald Trump announced the lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and against Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai, at a press conference in New Jersey, demanding the reinstatement of his online accounts on the companies' platforms.
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Trump 's accounts have been suspended since January, after his supporters stormed the Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's presidential victory. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other tech companies believed Trump could incite further violence through social media and decided to suspend his accounts.
“We are asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to order an immediate end to the illegal, shameful censorship of the American people by social media companies,” Donald Trump said. “We will hold the tech companies accountable.”
Twitter, Facebook, and Google are all private companies, and users must agree to specific terms of service set by each company in order to use the platforms. Under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, social media platforms have the right to police their services by removing posts that, for example, are obscene or violate the standards of the service. In addition, the law generally exempts companies from liability for the content that users post.
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However, Trump and some other politicians claim that Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms are abusing the protections given to them by law.
Donald Trump and many conservatives often claim that social media sites and platforms are biased against them, but several recent studies have found that this is not true. Posts by conservatives such as Ben Shapiro, Franklin Graham, Dan Bongino and Dinesh D'Souza are among the most widely shared on Facebook.
The lawsuit against Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook acted unconstitutionally when it removed Donald Trump from the platform, while similar allegations are being made against Twitter and YouTube. The lawsuits ask the court to declare the suspensions of Trump and other conservative accounts illegal, and also seek damages.
But Trump's lawsuits are likely doomed to fail, said Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University in California who has studied more than 60 similar, failed lawsuits. Paul Barrett , associate director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business, agrees
Barrett said Donald Trump has misunderstood the Constitution. “The law applies to government censorship. It does not prevent private sector companies (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) from regulating content on their platforms,” he said via email. “In fact, Facebook and Twitter themselves have the right to determine what their platforms display and amplify – and that right includes banning speakers who incite violence, as Trump did in connection with the Capitol riot on January 6.”
Goldman said Trump's legal team likely knows he is not going to win in court and suggested the lawsuits are being made to focus attention on him.
Trump’s move comes a week after a federal judge blocked a new Florida law signed by Trump ally Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The proposed law was intended to punish major social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, for removing content or banning politicians. The law would have allowed the state to fine the companies $250,000 per day for removing the accounts of political candidates at the state level and $25,000 per day for removing the accounts of candidates at the local level. However, the court did not uphold the law.
Matt Schruers, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which includes Facebook, Twitter and Google, said Internet companies have the right to enforce their terms of service.
Source: AP News
