Trump asks judge to force Twitter to lift ban

Former President Trump is asking a Florida federal judge to force Twitter to restore his account. 

Trump’s attorneys on Friday filed a motion for preliminary injunction against Twitter and its CEO Jack Dorsey. The filing states that Twitter had been “coerced” into banning Trump.

“Coerced by members of the United States Congress, operating under an unconstitutional immunity granted by a permissive federal statute, and acting directly with federal officials, Defendant is censoring Plaintiff, a former President of the United States,” the filing reads.

Twitter declined to comment on the filing. 

Trump, who regularly communicated via Twitter throughout his campaign and presidency, was booted from the platform after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which saw his supporters storm the building, delaying the certification of the 2020 election. After the riot, Twitter determined that Trump’s posts posed “the risk of further incitement of violence.” 

The former president is also suspended from Facebook until at least 2023. 

Trump sued Twitter and Facebook in July, arguing that the platforms were silencing conservative viewpoints.

In Friday’s filing, the former president’s attorneys allege that Twitter “exercises a degree of power and control over political discourse in this country that is immeasurable, historically unprecedented, and profoundly dangerous to open democratic debate.”

The filing also argues that Twitter had selectively enforced its policies, noting that the Taliban appeared on the platform in August.

“Over the weeks that followed, Twitter allowed the Taliban to tweet regularly about their military conquests and victories across Afghanistan. The Taliban’s Twitter account is active to this day,” the filing states.