Federal judge dismisses Trump's lawsuit against Twitter
U.S. District Court Judge James Donato dismissed former President Donald Trump's lawsuit against Twitter on Friday, though Trump's lawyers will have a chance to submit an amended complaint by May 27, Fox Business reported.
Trump sued Twitter for banning him from the platform after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and sought a court order that would force Twitter to reinstate his account and the accounts of other plaintiffs who were banned from Twitter. The former president said last month that he would not rejoin Twitter even if new owner Elon Musk offered to reinstate his account.
The lawsuit alleged that Twitter violated the First Amendment, that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is unconstitutional, and that Twitter engaged in "deceptive and misleading practices."
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The plaintiffs argued that, although Twitter is a private company, it was operating as a "state actor" under governmental coercion when it banned the plaintiffs' accounts and could therefore be sued for First Amendment violations. The suit presented what plaintiffs described as "examples of Democrat legislators threatening new regulations, antitrust breakup, and removal of Section 230 immunity for Defendants and other social media platforms if Twitter did not censor views and content with which these Members of Congress disagreed."
Donato wrote that the plaintiffs fell "short of the mark" in attempting to prove that "the conduct allegedly causing the deprivation of a federal right" was "fairly attributable to the State."
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