China News Service, New York, July 7th. Former US President Trump announced on the 7th that he has initiated a class action lawsuit against the three companies and their CEOs of Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s parent company Alphabet, demanding that he be restored to the corresponding Internet. Account usage rights of social platforms.
After the riots in the U.S. Capitol on January 6 this year, Facebook, Twitter, and Google's YouTube platform successively blocked Trump's account.
Trump’s team filed an indictment in Miami on the 7th, claiming that the three companies “blocked his account and violated the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The Associated Press said Trump held a press conference at a golf club in New Jersey that day.
Trump himself is the chief plaintiff of this class action. The litigation requirements include: the defendant compensates the plaintiff for losses, the court declares that Article 230 of the Communications Regulation Act is unconstitutional, and restores the Internet social platforms that Trump and other plaintiffs have been suspended or cancelled. account number.
Article 230 of the US "Communication Regulation Act" stipulates that Internet service providers are not required to be legally responsible for the words and deeds of third-party users. At the same time, service providers are allowed to voluntarily restrict offensive content or give others technical restrictions out of good faith considerations. Offensive content.
Trump tried to abolish this rule when he was president.
The New York Times pointed out that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution aims to protect citizens’ freedom of speech from being restricted by the government, and that online social platforms such as Facebook do not belong to the government.
The report quoted the comment of Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, saying that it is obviously illogical to treat technology companies as extensions of the government, and Trump’s idea of launching the lawsuit is "whisper". .
The Wall Street Journal also cited the views of First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams (Floyd Abrams), pointing out that Article 230 of the Communications Regulation Act provides online social platforms with more thoroughness than the First Amendment. There is no reason to believe that Congress’s provision of these protections is unconstitutional.
He said that in this case, the object protected by the First Amendment was social networking platforms, not Trump, and his choice of litigation was “extremely rash”.
CNN said that after Trump announced the initiation of the lawsuit, his team immediately began to solicit donations and at the same time solicit donations from more people and become plaintiffs. However, in the past, courts mostly rejected lawsuits regarding the banning of user accounts on online social platforms. The report said that Trump had suppressed companies that were unfavorable to his political image during his presidency, and this lawsuit is a continuation of this practice. (Finish)