Former US President Donald Trump on Wednesday filed class-action lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter and Google accusing their CEOs of First Amendment violations for alleged censorship.
The lawsuits come after Trump was banned from social media platforms following the US Capitol Hill riots that took place on January 6 this year.
The three lawsuits names Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
It is noteworthy that lawsuits that allege censorship and argue that social media companies violate the First Amendment when posts are removed have been repeatedly rejected by courts in the country.
The First Amendment applicable for the government, and not social media companies.
Deputy Director of the NYU Center for Business and Human Rights, Paul Barrett, said Trump's lawsuits were dead on arrival, noting that the First Amendment doesn't prevent private companies from moderating content.
"In fact, Facebook and Twitter themselves have a First Amendment free speech right to determine what speech their platforms project and amplify and that right includes excluding speakers who incite violence, as Trump did in connection with the January 6 Capitol insurrection," Barrett said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Trump said that the lawsuits will seek punitive damages and an "immediate halt to social media companies' illegal, shameful censorship of the American people." He also cited the platforms' use of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides legal protections to companies over what gets posted to their sites.
