Donald Trump announces lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter, Google and their leaders
The former president protests against his eviction from social networks since the storming of the Capitol and refers to "illegal censorship".
It's been six months since Donald Trump was banned, temporarily or permanently, from the main social networks. A sanction that followed the storming of the Capitol on January 6 by his supporters refusing to recognize his defeat in the presidential election to Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Before being banned, Donald Trump had nearly 89 million followers on Twitter, 35 million on Facebook and 24 million on Instagram.
On Wednesday, the former US president announced that he had filed a complaint in Florida against Facebook, Twitter and Google, as well as against their respective leaders Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai. He accuses them of being responsible for "illegal and unconstitutional censorship" by having ousted him from their platforms.
This complaint takes the form of a collective action taken by America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit association created in April to defend the political theses of Donald Trump. "We are asking the Federal Court for the Southern District of Florida to order an immediate end to illegal and shameful censorship by social media groups targeting Americans," he explained. "We demand (...) the end of the forced silence".
"There is no better proof that Big Tech is out of control than the fact that they have banned the President of the United States in office" on their platforms, he insisted. “If they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone. And that's exactly what they are doing, ”he said, giving a voice to citizens who also claim to be victims of bans. "We are engaged in a fight that we are going to win," he promised.
A two-year suspension at Facebook
Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump and his supporters developed the thesis that social networks, based in progressive California, were working to silence conservative rhetoric. A theory that does not stand up to the facts: on Facebook, the most popular pages and groups in the United States are powered by figures from the hard right. Social platforms were also under fire from criticism from Democrats, who believed they were responsible for the dissemination of populist and hate speech.
Donald Trump's ban from social networks in January had provoked contrasting reactions on both sides of the Atlantic, between relief and unease in the face of tech giants capable of cutting the microphone of a political leader.
Facebook then decided to turn to its Supervisory Board to find out whether or not it should restore Donald Trump's access. This independent body returned the social network to its responsibilities, asking it to decide between a permanent deletion of the account or a suspension for a determined time.
Facebook finally opted last month for a two-year suspension, which can be extended if experts believe that Donald Trump's return to the social network poses a danger. Immediately, the former president denounced "an insult" to his 75 million voters. “Facebook should not be allowed to get away with this censorship and muzzling,” he threatened.
