Twitter Says Donald Trump Doesn't Understand The Freedom of Speech, Asks Federal Judge To Close Case

JAKARTA - The former President of the United States (US), Donald Trump last July submitted a class action to Big Tech companies, such as Facebook, Google and Twitter and their CEOs.

In the lawsuit, Trump accuses the company of violating the country's First Amendment when social media banned it from the platform following the events at the US Capitol Building on January 6.

A few months after the incident, Trump also filed another lawsuit against Twitter to get his social media account back. Even so, this lawsuit is taken seriously by the technology company.

According to a Bloomberg report quoted from Mashable, Monday, December 13, Twitter is now asking a federal judge to drop the case. The social media company says Trump doesn't understand the First Amendment or free speech, and that Twitter's rights are what's really at stake here.

In a federal court filing, Twitter and former CEO Jack Dorsey argued that Twitter is a private actor not restricted by the federal constitution. Thus, Twitter can make decisions about what content is allowed to be posted on its site.

The fact that according to the company is even more surprising is that Trump has agreed to abide by Twitter's rules, but continues to repeatedly violate them.

In addition, the filing also lays out why Twitter banned Trump, revealing how the former president repeatedly tweeted false information about the 2020 vote, in violation of company policy.

"The government cannot force private operators of online platforms, such as Twitter, to spread speeches that are not approved by operators," Twitter argued in its filing.

It has been more than 11 months since supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol building in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election. After the event, several online platforms also suspended or outright banned Trump.

Since then, Trump has been trying to carve out his own space online. Trump is indeed battling a ban or suspension from Twitter, Facebook Meta Platform Inc., and Alphabet Inc's Google, which accuses the tech giant of trying to silence conservative views and violate its free speech rights.

Therefore, he recently announced his new social media platform, TRUTH Social. While TRUTH hasn't officially launched yet, the social media already has its own issues, such as licensing and trolls, crashing unreleased versions of the platform.