Former President Donald Trump, who has long complained about censorship by social media giants, filed class-action lawsuits Wednesday against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
That’s it: Trump is my hero!
Since 2017, I have been carrying on about this issue like a madman. Google has that effect on people. I would talk about it to anyone who listened. I have written more columns on this subject than any other journalist. And I appreciate Trump for being attentive to this subject – even as Big Tech hates him more than it hates any other human being.
After all, he has gone through the wringer. Even when he was still a sitting president living in the White House, Trump was permanently banned from Twitter, and is banned from Facebook for another two years!
The legal filing seeks immediate injunctive relief to allow the prompt restoration of Trump’s social media accounts. He also said he is asking the court to impose “punitive damages” on the three social media giants.
The former president and his allies have repeatedly criticized the bans as censorship. The tech giants argue they banned Trump for safety reasons following the Capitol siege in January – at the behest of Nancy Pelosi, who twice impeached Trump. The Capitol siege is routinely referred to by the speaker of the House and other Democrat politicians as an “armed rebellion” comparable to the 9/11 terror attacks.
Even during his presidency, Trump tried to take aim at the big tech monopolies and their CEOs. In 2020, he signed an executive order meant to limit the legal protections that shield social media companies from liability for the content users post on their platforms. Joe Biden revoked that executive order in May.
But Trump is my hero for this move. In fact, he’s my hero for many reasons.
He called Big Tech “the de facto censorship arm of the U.S. government.”
“While the social media companies are officially private entities, in recent years they have ceased to be private with the enactment and their historical use of Section 230, which profoundly protects them from liability,” Trump said as he announced the lawsuits in conjunction with the America First Policy Institute. “It is in effect a massive government subsidy. These companies have been co-opted, coerced and weaponized by government actors to become the enforcers of illegal, unconstitutional censorship.”
Trump’s suit likely faces an uphill battle, according to experts, who say the First Amendment can’t apply to private companies, even if they do benefit from government policies like Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
But that is one of the reasons I love the guy. He thinks big. Trump thinks the power of social media companies is growing too great. Who doesn’t agree?
“There is no better evidence that Big Tech is out of control than the fact that they banned the sitting president of the United States earlier this year,” Trump added. “If they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone.”
Now I can relax a little knowing I have a friend in this fight. Now maybe some of you will take me seriously. How about it?
I’m not just some creepy old guy who can only discuss one thing!
Trump’s talking about it – in fact, he’s suing the daylights out of Google, Twitter and Facebook!
Now maybe we’re finally getting somewhere.
Of course, we’re not there yet. Trump hasn’t won yet. And neither does WND have the money Big Tech robbed from us. We’re still in serious crisis. And we’re trying very hard to raise $100,000 this month so we can keep going. Thanks in advance for helping us.
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