Trump Amends Lawsuit Against Big Tech Companies
CONSERVATIVE BRIEF | Carmine Sabia | July 31, 2021
Donald Trump has amended his lawsuit against tech giants Facebook, Twitter and Google and their respective CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Picha.
The lawsuit, which was filed earlier this month and was amended this week by The America First Policy Institute, will now include some of the 65,000 complaints of censorship, the group said on its website.
“Late last night, Amended Complaints were filed in the Big Tech lawsuits against Facebook, Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter, Inc., Jack Dorsey, Google LLC, and Sundar Pichai. Since the initial filing on July 7, 2021, nearly 65,000 American people have submitted their stories of censorship through America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) Constitutional Litigation Partnership (CLP) at TakeOnBigTech.com,” it said.
“The Amended Complaints include additional censorship experiences and incorporates additional class representatives, including Dr. Naomi Wolf and Wayne Allyn Root – individuals on opposite ends of the political spectrum who highlight the bipartisan need to protect the thoughts and voices of all Americans, regardless of political affiliation,” the group said.
“The Amended Complaints also reflect additional causes of action under the Florida Fair Trade and Deceptive Practices Act and recent statements made by Biden White House officials, confirming the current administration’s collaboration with Big Tech platforms and their efforts to censor the American people,” it said.
When he announced the lawsuit Trump said that Facebook and Twitter had violated his first Amendment rights by suspending his account, in the case of Facebook, and banning him for life, in the case of Twitter.
And he accused the tech giants of becoming “state actors” because, he said, they collaborate on what is deemed “misinformation.”
In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal titled, “Donald J. Trump: Why I’m Suing Big Tech,” the 45th president detailed his lawsuit against Big Tech companies Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
In his piece, Trump wrote:
One of the gravest threats to our democracy today is a powerful group of Big Tech corporations that have teamed up with the government to censor the free speech of the American people. This is not only wrong—it is unconstitutional. To restore free speech for myself and for every American, I am suing Big Tech to stop it.
Social media has become as central to free speech as town meeting halls, newspapers, and television networks were in prior generations. The internet is the new public square. In recent years, however, Big Tech platforms have become increasingly brazen and shameless in censoring and discriminating against ideas, information, and people on social media—banning users, de-platforming organizations, and aggressively blocking the free flow of information on which our democracy depends.
He then detailed some major issues he has noticed with Big Tech silencing, particularly with suppression of speech and manipulation.
No longer are Big Tech giants simply removing specific threats of violence. They are manipulating and controlling the political debate itself. Consider content that was censored in the past year. Big Tech companies banned users from their platforms for publishing evidence that showed the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese lab, which even the corporate media now admits may be true.
In the middle of a pandemic, Big Tech censored physicians from discussing potential treatments such as hydroxychloroquine, which studies have now shown does work to relieve symptoms of Covid-19. In the weeks before a presidential election, the platforms banned the New York Post—America’s oldest newspaper—for publishing a story critical of Joe Biden’s family, a story the Biden campaign did not even dispute.
Perhaps most egregious, in the weeks after the election, Big Tech blocked the social-media accounts of the sitting president. If they can do it to me, they can do it to you—and believe me, they are.
