Former President Trump on Wednesday announced that he will file class-action lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter, Google, and the companies’ chief executive officers.
Speaking at a press conference he said, “Today I’m filing as a the lead class representative a major class-action lawsuit against the Big Tech giants Facebook, Google and Twitter and [CEO’s] Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai.”
The suits will be filed in the Southern District of Florida.
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Trump said the suits will claim that the companies enact “censorship of the American people.” Hailing the suits as a “beautiful development for our freedom of speech,” Trump said, “we’re going to hold Big Tech very accountable.”
The suit will be backed by the America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit launched by former Trump administration members to advance the former president’s policies.
Trump was permanently banned from Twitter and temporarily banned from Facebook following the January 6 Capitol riot, when Trump supporters breached the Capitol and forced lawmakers to evacuate during the certification of the Electoral College results.
Zuckerberg said on January 7 that Trump would be suspended from the platform because he used it “to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.”
Facebook extended the ban last month to at least January 2023.
“At the end of this period, if we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded,” the company said at the time.
In response, Trump hinted at a potential return to the White House.
“Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!” Trump said. The former president reportedly believes he will be reinstated as president sometime this summer.