by ROBERT SPENCER
The Afghanistan withdrawal was a catastrophe, inflation is rising, the Southern border is essentially nonexistent, China, Iran and North Korea are emboldened, and the disasters just keep coming, but there is one bright spot in the dumpster fire that is Biden’s handlers’ presidency: no mean tweets. Banning Trump was a clear demonstration of the partisan nature of the far-Left platform, and the former president is finally acting against this censorship: on Friday, he filed a civil action to compel Twitter to on Friday, he filed a civil action to compel Twitter to restore his account and let him give us more mean tweets.
Trump, along with the American Conservative Union and a host of others, including the Leftist Naomi Wolf, who was suspended from Twitter for questioning the Left’s cherished vaccine dogmas, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, asking that Twitter be compelled “immediately, and no later than forty-eight (48) hours following the issuance of the Court’s Order, to reinstate Plaintiff’s access to its platform and lift all temporary or permanent bans on Plaintiff’s Twitter account(s).”
The filing wastes no time in charging collusion between Twitter and Leftist elected officials: “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.”
In fact, one of the most interesting sections of the motion calling for Trump’s reinstatement is its exposition of how Twitter was caving to Democrat pressure in banning Trump: “Private party censorship…becomes governmental action ‘when the State provides “significant encouragement, either overt or covert.”’ The coercive and threatening statements made by Congressional and Executive Branch members…applying pressure on and threatening consequences against Defendant if it failed to censor Plaintiff, amounted at a minimum to significant encouragement. Democrat members of Congress, as well as President Biden himself, repeatedly encouraged Defendant to censor and restrain Plaintiff’s views, or face catastrophic legal and regulatory consequences.”
Twitter, the motion also states, is “a major avenue of public discourse,” such that its “censorship and prior restraint of Plaintiff’s speech violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and likewise violates Florida’s newly enacted Stop Social Media Censorship Act (‘SSMCA).” Thanks, Governor DeSantis! Twitter, the motion correctly observes, “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.” In banning Trump, Twitter top dogs cut off a principal “communication tool of his presidency.”
The motion notes that Trump was banned on January 8, 2021, for supposedly posting “misleading information” about the insurrection that never was, and for supposedly “glorifying violence.” Now that months have gone by and no one has been charged with anything like actual insurrection or treason, the partisan recklessness and authoritarianism of the Trump ban is clear.
What’s more, “the ludicrous incongruity of Twitter’s position on the matter came to full focus several months later. On August 8, 2021, a new account named for the Taliban unrecognized state, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the ‘Taliban’), a known terrorist organization, appeared on Twitter. 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 left simply fears anyone that can present an argument that shows how corrupt and failed they are and can draw an audience.
Twitter is a privately owned company. They can deny a soap box to whomever they wish.
Not as long as they get federal protection because they aren’t a publisher. They no longer provide un-edited content, so they cannot be discriminatory. But, we see you fall on the side of allowing the Taliban to promote terrorism on Twitter but deny a law abiding US citizen the right to free speech. Nothing new there.
greggie just is too ignorant to understand what is happening or he is one of those who is committing fraud. greggie has been wrong on most everything because he supports the lefts talking points.
He’s aware. He’s aware his Democrats spied on Trump’s campaign, promoted the known lies of Russian collusion, supported the impeachments based totally on lies, supported the promotion of political terror by BLM/ANTIFA and cheered the 2020 election fraud. He knows; he simply supports it as long as his degenerate party is doing it.
No they cannot.
Section 230 prevents them from being sued, but in exchange they are merely facilitating a public space.
Censoring a former president of the United States for purely partisan reasons is illegal.
Horse hockey! The right of service providers to set their own content standards WAS NOT given up in return for liability protection.
In fact, 47 U.S. Code § 230 c (2) (A) SPECIFICALLY STATES that they MAY NOT be held liable for DOING SO:
(2) Civil liability
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of—
(A) any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected; or
(B) any action taken to enable or make available to information content providers or others the technical means to restrict access to material described in paragraph (1).
If Twitter considered Trump’s inflammatory posts and lies to be in any way objectionable, they had EVERY RIGHT to ban him from using their site.
It should be noted that they did so DESPITE the huge loss of revenue this cost them.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230
Trump and his tools are great ones for twisting the meaning of laws and statues to cover his butt. They did the same damn thing to “justify” ignoring a SPECIFICALLY GRANTED OVERSIGHT POWER OF CONGRESS to examine ANYONE’S tax documents upon request.
“(A) any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected” There you go. No “good faith”, but left wing censorship. BLM isn’t censored and neither is ANTIFA, who are both violent domestic terrorist groups. The Taliban is allowed to post. So is the Iranian government, a promoter of terrorism. Nothing Trump has ever posted as fit those descriptions, his only problem is that he was popular and successfully opposed leftists.
To show they weren’t acting in good faith, you’d have to show Trump’s posts on Twitter conformed to their standards. Lots of luck with that.
No, you can show the truly hateful, violent, inciteful, racist posts Twitter allows. That makes clear that Trump (and other conservatives) are singled out for censorship. Take a black conservative like Candice Owens or Larry Elder and you can play the left wing race game as well.
Presenting a tu quoque fallacy as an argument would get a lawyer laughed out of the courtroom.
And how would you know what would get a lawyer laughed out of the courtroom, Comrade Greggie? Did you finally get that law degree that for years you have pretended to have?
Elementary fallacies of logic wouldn’t carry weight in a high school debate, let alone a court of law.
Trump supporters, of course, can’t be expected to understand the fundamentals of logic or their courtroom applications, either one.
The provable fact that the leftist-controlled media fears freedom of speech and suppresses alternative points of view is not a fallacy. Lies are fragile when truth is nearby and the left must suppress the truth.
It’s a provable fact that we consider those who promote dangerous lies to be unworthy of free megaphones. Let ’em buy their own damn megaphones. No one is saying that they can’t.
It’s Trump’s right, God-given right, to say what he thinks.
Twitter does not have a legal right to censor anyone, especially not a President who was holding them accountable.
He can say what he wants. That doesn’t mean a PRIVATE COMPANY is required to provide him with a soap box.
Yet they aren’t. ANTIFA has their speech. BLM has their speech. Taliban has their speech. Maxine Waters, who has promoted violence, has her speech. Pelosi, who has promoted violence, has her speech. Sharpton, who promotes racism and violence, has his speech.
Yet Trump NEVER promoted violence or racism. It’s political censorship, Twitter is editing content so their protections do not exist.
Any of those users can be denied use of the platform at the discretion of the platform’s owners. Such control is part of what defines private ownership.
Indeed they can. But only conservatives are selected for censorship. And what do they do when they start their own? They shut THAT down.
Only despots fear freedom of speech.
The issue here is free use of a privately owned social media platform, NOT freedom of speech.
They believe Trump is a much greater threat to the nation than ANTIFA or BLM. I happen to agree, but our differing opinions on that point aren’t the issue here. The issue is the right of owners of private property to control how their property is used.
Trump’s supporters seem to have suddenly flip-flopped on the rights that come with private ownership in a very dramatic fashion.
so greggie, the issue here is the qualifications of those who are determining what is a dangerous lie. Are they lies or are they statements that are not consistent with the thoughts of those who are designating speech as dangerous lies? If you were smarter greggie, you would under stand the issues and not always look like an ass!
The issue is that the owners of a property get to set the conditions for its use.
You post a lot when you know you are wrong…
….and on this one, you are DEAD wrong.
Trump isn’t above the law….and he’s not below it, either.
One day this will be you, and you’re going to want the Law on your side, not bent and distorted to serve marxist dictators who can’t win on the merits of their own platform.
We 75 million legal voters should do something about this if our courts won’t uphold the Constitution we all agree to follow.
You and yours are breaking the social contract, and putting yourself into a “not-America” bracket while you ask we America to follow the rules you are opening breaking.
Our patience is wearing thin.
Hyperbolically distorting Trump’s actions and words so you can vilify him and hide behind Laws that are not on your side, all while you people literally commit violence and call for violence on Twitter and Facebook, is just more proof that you’ve left out Union and do not meet the legal requirements of being an American Citizen.
Twitters standards, that a hot one, bwahahaha. Child porn, terrorists, vandalism of school and park bathrooms those are not suspended. Does twit face Jack have an ax to grind?
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A law signed by former President Donald Trump has opened the door to potentially hold Twitter liable for allowing child pornography to circulate on its platform, a federal judge ruled.
“The right of service providers to set their own content standards WAS NOT given up in return for liability protection.”
Incorrect. Twitter has no “content”, they just allow for a public platform unto which users can say WHATEVER they want unless it breaks a Law, such as threatening violence direct and imminent violence.
A Leftist Comedien is free to hold a bloody Trump head, and Leftwingers can call for a coup when they don’t get their way in an election…twitter has to keep it up.
This was violated when a double, and illegal, standard was applied to Rightwing users, showing a clear collusion with th the Democratic Party to usher in a one-party marxist police state.
Twitter has ZERO right to ban Trump, or anyone with a court-approved case of real threats.
Twitter and Facebook abetted terrorist Leftists to attack our government and our institutions.
The Right just simply has no evidence of doing anything remotely as violent or extreme.
“Incorrect. Twitter has no “content”, they just allow for a public platform unto which users can say WHATEVER they want unless it breaks a Law, such as threatening violence direct and imminent violence.”
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They OWN the platform, which members of the public use freely (and for free) at the owners’ pleasure. Are you suggesting that it be nationalized so it ceases to be private and becomes public property? That would make you more socialist than I ever was.
—
I won’t remind folks of their earlier opposition to net neutrality. (oops.)
Incorrect. Owning the platform comes with a tradeoff for not being a publisher: you can’t censor or sculpt public information.
Speech is already PUBLIC PROPERTY, my friend… especially on a public forum named Twitter or Facebook.
These platforms have paid for politicians to defend their violation of Federal Law.
If they want to private publishers, they can.
As is, they CANNOT censor or edit free and protected speech.
They’ve conjoined fascistically with a political party is and are abetting an unelected socialist infection on our Constitutional Republic.
Democrats should just rename themselves the National Socialist Party and stop pretending the value our Constitution.
“Owning the platform comes with a tradeoff for not being a publisher?” That’s NOWHERE in the law.
47 U.S. Code § 230 c (2) (A) quite specifically says something else entirely: That they CANNOT be held liable for exercising their own judgement about what isn’t acceptable.
Trump is barking at the moon. But he’s getting attention by doing it, and using other people’s money to pay for it.
“47 U.S. Code § 230 c (2) (A) quite specifically says something else entirely: That they CANNOT be held liable for exercising their own judgement about what isn’t acceptable.” You really do like to leave out the operable part, that they must not edit content. They have violated that and, thus, 230 doesn’t apply or protect them. They, like the Democrats, are fascist liars.
There is NO provision in the law that forbids them from declining to allow content they find objectionable. 47 U.S. Code § 230 c (2) (A) SPECIFICALLY STATES that they MAY NOT be held liable for doing so.
Imaginary laws and statutes carry no weight whatsoever.
Incorrect. The Law clearly states they cannot decide on what is free speech beyond the very slim definitions of “threats.”
A publisher may, but Twitter is just a manager of the public forum and has NO authority to decide on who gets a voice and who doesn’t.
This little stain on our Republic, along with Google and Facebook, must be taken out with this week’s trash.
It’s rotten.
Twitter has violated the Law in censoring Trump and others, and will now pay the price.
You should either specifically state what part of the law says that, or quit making the bogus claim.
Like many Trump lawsuits, this one is nothing more than a vehicle for the manipulation of public opinion.
As long as they are not acting as a “publisher”, as in editing content, they are protected from being sued. Clearly, they are editing and clearly they can be sued.
Censorship has no place in Constitutional America… only in YOUR Amerika.
Incorrect. Section 230 clearly states they CANNOT censor free speech under the cowardly cover of “what’s acceptable.”
That’s how tyrannies operate.
Trump has a full legal right to free speech on Twitter and every other platform under section 230.
You just can’t argue this one.
Twitter, Facebook, and Google paid to install a government that will make them richer.
We won’t stand for it, and anyone who does has forfeited their right as an American citizen.
They are free to operate unregulated by the federal government as long as they are leaving their platform free and open to all. Once it becomes throttled by leftist ideology, it’s not just a free and open forum for the exchange of ideas but a campaign contributor to the DNC. For instance, blocking the true facts about Hunter’s laptop was a political contribution to idiot Biden and the DNC. 17% of voters (not copy machines) would have changed their vote for idiot Biden had they had that information. It’s undeniable (for any honest person).
Another example is their suppression of vaccine information. It is an actual fact that some (a small number) of people suffer harm and even death due to getting a COVID vaccine. Suppressing that FACT is “misinformation”.
Trump held Twitter and other platforms accountable.
In response, they paid into a global cabal to rig our election and violate the will of our people.
Trump’s God-given right to free speech shall not be infringed.
None of ours will be.
Trump held Twitter and other platforms accountable—and Twitter returned the favor. They took away his free soapbox.
Incorrect.
Twitter enacted a petty and illegal revenge on Trump for holding them accountable.
That transgression will be rectified, in short order.
Twitter is not above the Law, no matter who they pay in secret or in public.
It’s their privately owned platform. THEY decide who may and may not use it, not Donald Trump. Trump can gin up support for the end of American democracy somewhere else.
Incorrect. They cannot censor free speech.
They are not a publisher and section 230 is clear.
Twitter is against democracy and helping an unelected Marxist movement compromise our elections.
Hence to silencing of a duly elected President with over 75 million legal voters.
Trump needs no support on this, however.
His right to free speech and twitter’s violation of the law is clear.
Any delay in reinstating his account will be punished to the full extent of the Law.
No lawyer on the planet could defend Twitter against such an obvious and blatant infraction.
You’re obviously going to keep on saying that, without citing a damn thing in the law to support it. That would be because there’s not a damn thing in the law TO cite.
When a social media outlet is private sector property, the owners of that property have a right to allow or deny free use of it, based on their OWN interpretation of their OWN standards of conduct.
This isn’t a free speech issue. It’s a property rights issue. Free speech entitles no one to free use someone else’s privately owned microphone.
greggie, when you argue with people who are much more intelligent than you, you should go watch your soap operas!
Twitter is playing government by using it’s government-permitted immunity to rig out elections and push a tyrannical Democrat party to take control of our nation.
No one voted for this.
“Build Back Better” is a globalist slogan adopted by a globalist-installed Dictator currently drooling on our Resolute Desk.
It’s not the will of American voters, not even close.
Psaki Argues with Newsmax Reporter Emerald Robinson, Refuses to Say if Hunter Biden has Divested From Chinese Government-Linked Firm
Joe Biden Claims Chasing Senators into Bathrooms Is “Part of the Process — But Carrying American Flags into US Capitol Is Criminal Activity with Serious Punishment
Fauci’s NIAID Funded an American Institute that Helped Train Chinese Researchers from Wuhan Where COVID Is Suspected of Originating
Biden Refuses to Answer Foreign Policy Question Because it Would “Confuse the American People”
Ah… It’s the little sock puppet that pushes any substantive comments below the Active Discussions event horizon with a series of moronic propaganda memes…
Referring to yourself?
The above is EXACTLY what you do.
Stop projecting.
Soy boy woke greg js fine when it is President Trump. But when his moronic posts are dumped downward he cries like a little girl
That’s how you dismiss any problematic observations so that you don’t have to deal with them. Trump’s lawsuit is groundless.
Incorrect. Removal of trump is nothing more than classic Soviet style censorship, using subjective and unlawful grounds as the basis for political assassination.
Trump’s right to free speech, and every US citizens’, shall not be infringed.
Twitter is a private company given the privilege of facilitating a public space.
Anyone against Trump’s lawsuit obviously is against our constitution.
Trump’s right to free speech is not being denied if I refuse to let him use my privately owned megaphone. If he wants to peddle his lies, he can find his own damn megaphone.
Twitter is holding the megaphone of free speech. That’s all. They are a basic service provider…like a sewage district.
Trump has a right to free speech, and section 230 clearly forbids Twitter and other corrupted platforms from censoring him or any American.
Peddling lies? That’s clearly what Twitter is doing.
His posts are propaganda fed him by the CCP.
Facebook.com Is for Sale as Worldwide Outage, Whistleblower, and Massive User Data Breach Collide in Perfect Storm
Facebook ‘Whistleblower’ Donated 36 Times to Democrats, Including to Anti-Primary Extremists And AOC.
D’oh: Twitter Fact Checkers Just Revealed Their Whole Entire Backside as Shameless Shills For Big Pharma
Facebook Crashes Globally After Mainstream Media Heralds Alleged ‘Whistleblower’
HUGE INTERNET CRISIS: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp — Twitter, Verizona, Google, AT&T, Telegram, Others are Also Reporting Issues
Wall Street jouoreports that Facebook says the source of the problem is unknown
Why would anyone be on facebook now 1.,5 billion user accounts went up for sale on the dark web.
Putin demanded sicko Zuck remove all the child porn or he would crush him.
After Hillary set Putin up with his own silicon valley who thinks he cant?
Ex-Trump aide Stephanie Grisham says ‘I am terrified’ of Trump running in 2024 – https://abcnews.go.com/US/exclusive-trump-aide-stephanie-grisham-terrified-trump-running/story?id=80398083
Stephanie Grisham, one of former President Donald Trump’s most senior and longest-serving advisers, says she is “terrified” that her former boss may run for office again.
“I am terrified of him running in 2024,” Grisham, who served as both Trump’s press secretary and first lady Melania Trump’s chief of staff, told “Nightline” co-anchor Juju Chang in a wide-ranging exclusive interview on the eve of the publication of Grisham’s new book.
“I don’t think he is fit for the job,” Grisham said. “I think that he is erratic. I think that he can be delusional. I think that he is a narcissist and cares about himself first and foremost. And I do not want him to be our president again.”
Asked by Chang what scares her the most, Grisham painted a grim picture of what could happen if Trump ends up running again in 2024.
“I think he would foment more violence,” she said. “He won’t have consequences. He won’t need to be reelected again.”
“I think he will line his pockets,” she added. “I think his family will line their pockets. I believe that he wanted to help the country in the beginning; I believe he wants to help himself now.”
In her new book, titled “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” out this Tuesday, Grisham describes a White House in perpetual chaos, where she says “casual dishonesty” flowed through the air “as if it were in the air conditioning system.” The book is filled with accusations about the former president, and includes a host of alleged wrongdoings that range from downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus to making sexual comments about a young female White House staffer.
But amid all the turmoil laid out in the book, Grisham remained by the former president’s side for nearly his entire four-year term in the White House, before resigning after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
“How did you go from one of the loyalist loyals to one of their fiercest critics, seemingly overnight?” Chang asked Grisham, who responded, “Definitely not overnight. It’s kind of a journey.”
Grisham, who is perhaps best known for never holding a televised press briefing during her time as White House press secretary, has faced a barrage of criticism for speaking out now, nearly a year after leaving the White House.
The former president and his family have forcefully responded to the latest tell-all book by a former close ally, with Melania Trump’s office saying in a statement, “The author is desperately trying to rehabilitate her tarnished reputation by manipulating and distorting the truth about Mrs. Trump. Ms. Grisham is a deceitful and troubled individual who doesn’t deserve anyone’s trust…
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The irony of that last statement is probably lost on no one but Trump’s delusional supporters.
Haha.
YOU are terrified of Trump running.
Partisan hit books are pretty common. Hundreds on Obama, hundreds on Trump.
Luckily Trump has no real “supporters”, just thinking Americans trying keep Marxist turds like you out of our government.
Look at the alternative the Democrats provide. A dummy. A dolt. An idiot. A corrupt liar that has put the entire nation in jeopardy. Conversely, Trump was a leader and he SERVED the country, accomplishing good things for the citizens.