Twitter asked a federal judge to throw out Donald Trump’s lawsuit over his ban from the platform for stoking the U.S. Capitol riot, arguing the company’s right to free speech is at stake — not the former president’s. From a report: Twitter’s First Amendment rights “are at their apex” in the case because the editorial decisions Trump is challenging relate to matters of public concern, including threats to the peaceful transfer of power, Twitter and its chief executive officer, Jack Dorsey, said in a San Francisco federal court filing. Trump “agreed to abide by Twitter’s rules, and yet proceeded to repeatedly violate those rules” before, during and after the deadly assault on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters, with tweets that “could encourage further violence,” the company said in its filing late Thursday.
Trump’s free-speech claim also ignores “that Twitter is a private actor that is not constrained by the federal constitution,” the company said. The government “cannot force the private operator of an online platform, such as Twitter, to disseminate speech with which the operator disagrees.” Trump is fighting bans or suspensions from Twitter, Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Alphabet’s Google, accusing the tech giants of trying to silence conservative views and violating his free-speech rights. He’s also pressing ahead with plans to launch a rival social-media platform as part of a new media company with “non-woke” entertainment and news.
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