Former US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, 7 July, sued three IT giants – Facebook, Twitter and Google – for the platforms' actions to ban Trump from posting on their sites.
Claiming that he and other conservatives have been wrongfully censored by the tech companies, Trump announced action against the two social media platforms and Google’s YouTube, along with the companies’ chief executives, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai, at the press conference in New Jersey.
“We’re asking the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida to order an immediate halt to social media companies’ illegal, shameful censorship of the American people,” Trump was quoted as saying by AP.
Trump, in his petition, has demanded for the reinstatement of his accounts on the pertinent platforms, and also to prevent any similar censorship of his activities in the future.
“Our case will prove this censorship is unlawful, unconstitutional and completely un-American,” Trump said, as per an NYT report.
Trump's social media accounts were suspended in January this year after he put out incendiary content backing his supporters who had stormed the US Capitol, on 6 January, to protest against him losing the presidential elections.
Social media apps such as Instagram, Snapchat and Google-owned YouTube had also banned the former president's accounts.
(With inputs from Associated Press and The New York Times)
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