US: Trump takes Twitter to court to reinstate his account

Reuters

Washington - Former president pushes forward with efforts toward permanent reinstatement

By ANI/Sputnik

Published: Sun 3 Oct 2021, 7:40 AM

Former US president Donald Trump has filed a complaint with a federal court, asking Twitter to temporarily restore his account while he pushes forward with efforts toward permanent reinstatement.

Trump filed the request for a preliminary injunction against Twitter late on Friday, in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Advertising

The filing says, as quoted by ABC News, that Twitter “exercises a degree of power and control over political discourse in this country that is immeasurable, historically unprecedented, and profoundly dangerous to open democratic debate.”

Trump argues that Twitter was “coerced” by members of Congress to suspend his account.

In July, Trump announced a class-action lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter, Google subsidiary YouTube and their CEOs. The lawsuit said that the status of the three tech giants “rises beyond that of a private company to that of a state actor” and is constrained by the First Amendment right to free speech in the censorship decisions it makes regarding its users.

Facebook and Twitter have insisted that their bans on Trump are not censorship but were set up for public safety in response to the January 6 unrest at the US Capitol.

At the time Twitter permanently banned Trump in January, the former president had 88 million followers.