San Francisco Federal District Judge James Donato dismissed the appeal Friday, writing that the former president’s argument that the ban would violate his right to free speech under the First Amendment did not come from a “position of force.” .
Donato noted that Twitter is a private company and that “the first amendment applies only to government speech abbreviations and not to alleged private company abbreviations.”
Donato said the only way Trump can defeat the court ban is to prove that his suspension is government-owned. But no, Donato said.
“In general, the amended complaint does not claim that Twitter was acting as a government agency when it closed the plaintiffs’ accounts, ”Donato wrote.
Twitter officially banned Trump on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the Jan. 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol. Company officials said there was a ban “For the risk of further incitement to violence”.
But Trump’s suspension on Twitter didn’t really deter him from messaging followers through his spokesperson, Liz Harrington, who posted them on her Twitter page.
On Friday, Trump announced nothing about Harrington’s defeat in court.
Last month, Trump said he had no plans to return to Twitter even after multibillionaire Elon Musk lifted the ban after completing the company’s acquisition.
Instead, the former president said he would stay with Truth Social, a social media company with its own problems.
Source: Huffpost
