Trump challenges Big Tech

Former President Donald Trump is the lead plaintiff in a series of class-action lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter, Google, and the CEOs of each. At a news conference in New Jersey on Wednesday, he claimed the social media companies unfairly censored him and other conservatives. After the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, which Google owns, accused the president of inciting violence and banned or suspended him from their platforms. The lawsuits ask the courts to reinstate Trump’s and the plaintiffs’ accounts, award damages, and remove warning labels on posts about Trump. The U.S. House impeached Trump after the riot for inciting the insurrection, but a vote in the Senate fell short of the two-thirds majority required to convict him.

What are the claims? Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act gives social media platforms the right to regulate or remove content they deem inappropriate. The plaintiffs claim the companies and their CEOs abused this privilege by suppressing conservative voices, violating users’ First Amendment right to free speech. Social media platforms are categorized as private companies, but the suit claims that they become state actors when they collaborate with public health officials such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to define “misinformation.” Trump also asked the courts to deem Section 230 unconstitutional.

Dig deeper: Read Steve West’s report in Liberties about Big Tech and censorship.