Former US President Donald Trump is suing Facebook, Google, Twitter and their CEOs in a class action lawsuit. He announced this during a press conference. Trump says these companies are restricting conservative American votes.
Trump announced the class action lawsuit at his golf club near Bedminster, New Jersey. There, he argued to considerable media attention that Facebook, Google and Twitter are “suppressing and censoring” the conservative voice of the American people. “I want an immediate end to this illegal censorship of Americans,” he said. “It’s illegal, unconstitutional and un-American.”
During the speech, Trump referred to the fact that his accounts on Facebook and Twitter were being blocked. “There is no better proof that these companies have gone off the rails than the fact that they banned the incumbent president of the United States,” he said. Afterwards, he gave the floor to other people who were also prevented from sharing certain messages on social networks.
A Trump lawyer was also given the floor afterwards. He argued that only the US Supreme Court can determine what hate speech and disinformation is. “And not two California business leaders”.
Donald Trump’s Twitter account was permanently banned on January 9 this year after the then-incumbent US president posted tweets that Twitter said “incited violence.” These tweets were prompted by the storming of the US Capitol by pro-Trump protesters on January 6. Twitter explained in a blog post which tweets are involved and what the exact motivations were .
Trump’s Facebook and Instagram account was blocked by Facebook on Jan. 7 , after he praised the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Facebook’s supervisory board, the Facebook Oversight Board, stated in early May that the company had acted lawfully but that it must make a clear judgment about the duration of the Trump blockade within six months. That judgment came in early June. Then it was announced that Trump will not be welcome on Facebook and Instagram for two years.
