Trump Sues Twitter, Facebook, Google, And Their CEOs – Update

UPDATED: Former US President  has announced a lawsuit against Twitter, Facebook and Google, as well as their respective CEOs Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai.

Sources familiar with the plans tipped off CNBC on Wednesday, and said the former president will announce the legal action from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

CNBC however noted that Trump has a history of not following through on his threats of legal action.

Trump lawsuit

However in an update, CNBC confirmed that Trump had indeed announced the lawsuit at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, at 11am EST.

He made the announcement alongside two leaders from America First Policy Institute, the pro-Trump non-profit group that is supporting the lawsuits.

The legal action, reportedly to be filed in federal court in Florida, alleges the tech giants have violated defendants’ First Amendments rights, according to a press release from the nonprofit that was shared with CNBC prior to Trump’s remarks.

The potential of legal action against Facebook and Twitter, was first reported by Axios.

A spokesman for Twitter declined to comment on the lawsuit at the time of writing.

Facebook and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At the weekend, a pro Donald Trump social networking app was briefly hacked on the day of its launch in the United States.

It seems that Gettr is a Twitter-like social platform with posts and trending topics. It has advertised itself on the Google Play and Apple app stores as a “marketplace of ideas.”

Twitter of course was Trump’s favoured platform during his term in office.

Social network ban

After leaving office Donald Trump had launched a website to publish content ‘straight from the desk’ of the former president.

But after only one month of operation, Donald Trump closed down the website.

Donald Trump has been banned on many social networking platforms and was widely condemned for his role in inciting a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol building on Wednesday 6 January, which resulted in the deaths of five people (including one police officer who was beaten to death).

In the immediate aftermath, Facebook banned Trump for 24 hours, but as the full scale of the attempted insurrection became clear, it then suspended his accounts indefinitely.

YouTube and Twitter also initially banned Trump for a limited period of time, but Twitter then opted to permanently ban Trump from its platform.

YouTube also suspended Trump’s account indefinitely.

Facebook’s Oversight Board in early May ruled that Mark Zuckerberg’s firm could keep suspending Donald Trump on Facebook and Instagram. Trump’s ban from using the platform until at least January 2023.

However, the board said Facebook must review the decision within six months, and it did object to the social network making the suspension indefinite.

Trump did not take kindly to the Oversight Board decision, and lashed out at tech firms in response, calling the bans a “total disgrace and an embarrassment to our country”.