According to the Bloomberg report (via Engadget), Twitter claims that the lawsuit is against the company’s First Amendment free speech rights. Also, Trump has repeatedly violated the rules he has adopted to open accounts on the platform. Twitter concludes that mandatory lifting of Trump’s ban on the platform would challenge “bedrock principles of constitutional law.” “Twitter is a private actor that is not constrained by the federal constitution,” and the government “cannot force the private operator of an online platform, such as Twitter, to disseminate speech with which the operator disagrees.” Following the January 6 demonstration by Trump supporters that led to the attack on the US Congress, Twitter initially tried to hide Trump’s tweets from the public with a misleading tag but later banned him entirely from the platform. Trump has also filed a lawsuit seeking the lifting of the ban. Twitter also claims to be a private company and has the right not to host what it does not like.
Trump is looking for a legal way to go back to Twitter
Lead attorney John Coale But has a different opinion. He believes that Twitter is a “state actor,” According to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, it should follow the First Amendment. There have been various interpretations of Section 230. According to the U.S. Justice Department notes in the court filing, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act “does not regulate” Trump’s speech. The Justice Department has also stated that its purpose is to defend Section 230. “The statute establishes a content- and viewpoint-neutral rule prohibiting liability for certain conduct by providers of interactive computer services.” The Justice Department noted. But in any case, Twitter says it has no interest in lifting the Trump ban. Ultimately, everything depends on the court’s decision and the lawyers’ efforts. Of course, Trump did not wait for popular social platforms to lift his ban. The former president recently founded a social platform called Truth Social to connect with his supporters. Trump’s exclusive platform will be widely available in early 2022.
