He wants the court to declare Article 230 unconstitutional
Former President Donald Trump has filed proposed class actions against Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube, as well as CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai. The lawsuits come six months after Trump permanently or temporarily suspended all three platforms.
Trump announced the lawsuits at a press conference today, following an early report from Axios. He cited the issues as "a very important game-changing factor for our country".
However, the allegations are based on incorporating untested or mostly ignored legal arguments, and come after numerous other failed attempts to sue social media companies for suspensions or other forms of moderation.
The complaints allege that social media companies violated the First Amendment by suspending Trump and other users from their networks, an argument that courts have usually ignored -- they have ruled overwhelmingly that the First Amendment is intended to limit censorship by the government, not private companies. His efforts are supported by the America First Institute for Policy, an advocacy group founded by former Trump officials, including Linda McMahon and Brooke Rollins.
Allowances are supported by America's First PRO-TRUMP
Trump's lawsuits seek damages on behalf of any user with a "restricted or wrongly restricted" account on Facebook, Twitter or a Google service. Courts are required to declare Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act unconstitutional. Ironically, Trump cited Section 230 as a legal justification for suing the companies in his press conference, however, incorrectly saying that "once they have Section 230, they are not private companies."
This claim also appears to challenge the premise of social media terms of service agreements - complaining that Facebook, for example, "expressly conditional" use on agreeing to "Facebook's "speech restrictions".
Twitter and Facebook declined to comment on the lawsuit. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Judges have repeatedly rejected claims that social media companies are public entities
Trump described the class action as an attempt to stop companies from violating US speech laws. We are not looking for a settlement. "We don't expect a settlement," Trump said in response to a question during the press conference, noting that companies could be responsible for "potential trillions of dollars" in damages, "a number that no one has seen before."
This seems unlikely. On Twitter, attorney and legal writer Eric Goldman cited an upcoming research paper that found that courts almost always side with web platforms when users sue for being banned. Judges have not only overturned claims from conservative users, but also dismissed claims alleging discrimination based on protected categories — such as in a recently dismissed lawsuit against Google, which some black creators accused of suppressing or demonizing videos about race. Users have triumphed in rare cases where censorship has been done not by platforms, but by government agencies and the politicians who use them, including Trump himself.
Trump is apparently pointing to emails between Facebook and his own administration as evidence of collusion
Trump's new lawsuits are more detailed - and often confusing - than many of these allegations. The suits suggest that Facebook, Twitter, and Google have become state actors not only because they possess powerful platforms to host speech, but also because members of Congress have invited them to hearings and urged them to remove certain categories of content, including false information and incitement to violence. . (Trump was banned from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for violating rules against incitement during the January 6 riots that sought to nullify the election of President Joe Biden.) There is no legal precedent for using this common practice - which the lawsuits refer to as "legislative 'coercion'" - as a justification for punishing the companies themselves.
Trump also accuses the platforms of "closely coordinated interaction...to restrict freedom of speech" with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the press conference, Trump appeared to cited an email between Zuckerberg and Fauci from March 2020, which was during Trump's presidency.
The governors have almost universally rejected claims that social media platforms are public places that must host any First Amendment-protected content. While Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has pushed for more direct regulation of how companies moderate, he did so in a case that was virtually unrelated to the matter.
Trump clashed with social media companies long before he was barred from entering them this year. As president, he signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to reduce protections under Section 230, but the order had little effect and President Joe Biden rescinded it a year later.
At the press conference, Trump quibbled about whether he would actually return to Facebook, Twitter and Google if the ban was lifted. “I don't know. I don't know,” he said. “If I issue a press release, I will get very good service.” Trump launched an ad distribution blog in May, but shut it down within a month after reportedly attracting a few readers.
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