Former President Donald Trump on Sunday again hurled attacks at tech giants Twitter, Facebook and Youtube for for kicking him off their platforms, this time saying that the companies are a "Democrat machine."
Trump announced last week that he will be filing a lawsuit against the Big Tech companies because, as he alleges, they are state actors and censoring him or any other citizen is in violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
The lawsuits state that the corporations are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which ensures that they are not held liable for users' posts on their platform while also allowing them to restrict content considered "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable," regardless of whether such speech would be protected under the guise of the First Amendment.
"They’re getting the biggest subsidy that any company has ever gotten from a government," Trump said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," referring to the Section 230 immunity. "They’re immune from so many different things, but they’re not immune from this lawsuit because what they’ve done is such a violation of the Constitution. A violation like we’ve never seen before."
The First Amendment only applies to state actors, which are subject to the Constitution, and not corporations or other private businesses, which each of the tech companies would fall under. However, Trump is attempting to claiming that the companies were working for government officials within the Democratic Party and should be just as liable as a government official or entity would.
In the Facebook lawsuit, Trump alleges that the social media platform "worked directly and in concert with" the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "to advance only the narrative that Defendants and Dr. Fauci subscribe to."
Trump said that this assertion is evidenced by emails between Fauci and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The former president also claims that YouTube and Twitter have made efforts to promote more liberal ideas while censoring posts on their sites that contest such viewpoints.
"They work with the Democrats," Trump said in the Sunday interview. "It’s a Democrat machine; it should be a campaign contribution."
He further expressed frustration with the platform's decision to boot him while accounts of violent world leaders and terror groups are allowed to remain.
"They allow Hamas," Trump said. "They allow countries and dictators that want to destroy everything and everybody and that are doing tremendous harm to their countries, killing people by the thousands. They're allowed.”
“But a president of the United States that has a following like nobody's seen before, we're not allowed to do that," he continued.
Trump asserts that the suspension of his social media accounts impacts his ability to campaign for other Republicans ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. He also said his ability to prepare for a potential presidential campaign in 2024 is hurt by the platforms' censorship.
He said that he has already decided if he will run for the high office again but that he cannot reveal it yet due to campaign finances.
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