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On Wednesday, July 7, 2021, former president Donald J. Trump announced that he will lead class-action lawsuits against social platforms Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, along with their executives Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai.
"We’re asking the US district court for the southern district of Florida to order an immediate halt to social media companies’ illegal shameful censorship of the American people, and that's exactly what they're doing," Trump explained. "We're demanding an end to the shadowbanning, a stop to the silencing, and a stop to the blacklisting, banishing and cancelling that you know so well. Our case will prove this censorship is unlawful, it's unconstitutional, and it's completely un-American, we all know that very very well.
The three platforms banned the former President after Capitol Hill was stormed on January 6, 2021 by a mob of his supporters in a bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Trump was permanently banned from Twitter for repeated Terms of Service violations and the risk of possibly using them to "incite further violence."
"In addition, we are asking the court to impose punitive damages on these social media giants, we're going to hold Big Tech very accountable," Trump explained. "This is the first of numerous other lawsuits I assume that would follow, but this is the lead and I think this is going to be a very, very important game-changer for our country."
Trump has also received temporary suspensions from Facebook and YouTube for posing a "risk of violence," but the accounts remain visible. After an oversight board found it was inappropriate to indefinitely suspend the former president, Facebook has upheld their suspension until 2023 whilst YouTube will lift their suspension when the risk of violence has receded.
"It will be a pivotal battle in the defense of the First Amendment, and in the end, I am confident that we will achieve a historic victory for American freedom, and at the same time, freedom of speech," Trump explained.
Alternative platforms such as Parler and Gettr have gained traction as a result of the right's feud with Big Tech in late 2020. However, they are also being bombarded with racial and anti-semitic slurs in the trending section, along with Sonic the Hedgehog porn by leftist users who argue that "furry porn is protected under the First Amendment."