JAKARTA - A federal district court judge in San Francisco, United States (US) last week dismissed Donald Trump's lawsuit against Twitter challenging his suspension from the platform.
In the judge's written ruling, James Donato rejected Trump's argument that Twitter violated his right to free speech guaranteed by the first amendment to the US constitution.
The social network permanently suspended the former US president's account after his supporters stormed the Capitol Building in January 2021 to protest.
Twitter cites two of his tweets that it believes are very likely to encourage and inspire people to imitate the criminal acts that took place at the Capitol Building on January 6 last year.
Trump filed the lawsuit in October 2021, arguing about the ban and arguing that it violated his First Amendment rights. However, Donato disagreed and noted in his ruling that Twitter is a private company.
"The First Amendment only applies to reductions in government speeches, and not to alleged reductions by private companies," Donato said as quoted from Engadget, Monday, May 9.
In addition, Donato also rejected the notion that the social network had acted as a government entity after being pressured by Trump's opponents, and thus violated the First Amendment when it banned the former president.
In his lawsuit, Trump asked a judge to rule on the Federal Communications Propriety Act, which holds that online service providers such as Twitter cannot be held liable for content posted by users and is unconstitutional.
Donato also dismissed that claim, ruling that the former US president had the legal standing to challenge Section 230 of the CDA. Trump himself is a known critic of Article 230 and proposed limiting the protections social media platforms enjoy under him during his term.
Granted, Trump was an avid Twitter user prior to his account suspension, and had more than 88 million followers on Twitter, but he later formed his own social network called Truth Social after the suspension.
Not long ago, Trump told CNBC that he would not return to Twitter even if Elon Musk unsuspected his account and would remain on Truth Social instead.
According to a recent Daily Beast report, Truth Social currently has 513,000 daily active users compared to Twitter's 217 million.
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