Allen Zhong
Former President Donald Trump asked a federal judge to force Twitter to reinstate his account in a civil lawsuit filed in Florida on Friday.
Trump, along with several other plaintiffs, says that Twitter’s ban of his account violated the First Amendment and likely violated Florida’s newly-enacted Stop Social Media Censorship Act.
The former president filed a request for a preliminary injunction against Twitter in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, arguing the social media company was “coerced” by members of the U.S. Congress to suspend his account. He then suggested that Twitter’s ban of his account should be regarded as a government action for First Amendment purposes as it’s the result of “the State’s exercise of ‘coercive power.’”
Twitter “exercises a degree of power and control over political discourse in this country that is immeasurable, historically unprecedented, and profoundly dangerous to open democratic debate,” Trump’s lawyers said in the filing (pdf).
The Epoch Times has reached out to Twitter for comment.
The ban will affect the 2022 elections if Trump’s account is not reinstated, Trump’s lawyers said in the filing, citing constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
“Plaintiff faces loss of his donor and merchandising platforms, and ability to communicate his views, content, and endorsements of local candidates,” read the filing.
Twitter and several other social media platforms banned Trump from their services after the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Before he was blocked, Trump had more than 88 million followers on Twitter and used it as his social media megaphone.
At the time of removing Trump’s account permanently, Twitter said his tweets had violated the platform’s policy barring “glorification of violence.”
However, Trump argued in the court filing that Twitter allowed the Taliban to tweet regularly about their military victories across Afghanistan, but censored him during his presidency by labeling his tweets as “misleading information.”
In July, Trump sued Twitter, Facebook, and Alphabet’s Google, as well as their chief executives, alleging they unlawfully silence conservative viewpoints.
Reuters contributed to the report.Epoch Times