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In
a written ruling, U.S. District Judge James Donato in San
Francisco rejected Trump's argument that Twitter violated his
right to freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of
the U.S. Constitution.
Twitter and other social media platforms banned Trump from their
services after a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol
in a deadly riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
That assault followed a speech by Trump in which he reiterated
false claims that his election loss in November was because of
widespread fraud, an assertion rejected by multiple courts and
state election officials.
Trump's lawyers alleged in a court filing last year 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."
At the time of removing Trump's account permanently, Twitter
said his tweets had violated the platform's policy barring
"glorification of violence." The company said then that Trump's
tweets that led to his removal were "highly likely" to encourage
people to replicate what happened in the Capitol riots.
Before he was blocked, Trump had more than 88 million followers
on Twitter and used it as his social media megaphone.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra
Maler)
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