Donald Trump sues Facebook, Twitter and Google, claiming censorship
Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday filed lawsuits against Twitter Inc, Facebook Inc, and Alphabet Inc's Google, as well as their chief executives, alleging they unlawfully silence conservative viewpoints, Reuters reported.
The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court in Miami, allege the California-based social media platforms violated the right to freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
"We will achieve a historic victory for American freedom and at the same time, freedom of speech," Trump said at a news conference at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
A Twitter representative declined to comment. Representatives of Facebook and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump lost his social media megaphone this year after the companies said he violated their policies against glorifying violence.
The lawsuits ask a judge to invalidate Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a law that has been called the backbone of the internet because it provides websites with protections from liability over content posted by users. Trump and others who have attacked Section 230 say it has given big internet companies too much legal protection and allowed them to escape responsibility for their actions.
A federal judge in Florida last week blocked a recently enacted state law that was meant to authorize the state to penalize social media companies when they ban political candidates, with the judge saying the law likely violated free speech rights.
The lawsuit said the bill signed by Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in May was unconstitutional. It would have made Florida the first state to regulate how social media companies moderate online speech.
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