Last Wednesday, former President Donald Trump filed three separate class-action lawsuits against Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) , Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) , and Google's parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL).
The suits allege that the three social media giants targeted Trump under pressure from elected officials. Therefore, the lawsuits argue that his subsequent bans from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube violated Trump's first amendment rights.
"We're going to hold big tech very accountable," Mr. Trump told an assembled throng of reporters and supporters at his self-titled "Trump National Golf Club" in Bedminster, New Jersey. "If they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone."
Trump was expunged from all three platforms following a series of social media posts where he reiterated false claims about election fraud in the wake of the deadly Capitol Hill riots.
Facebook provisionally suspended Trump from the platform for a period of two weeks, on January 7, a day after his supporters overran the halls of Congress. Facebook has since extended this ban until 2023. That same day Twitter permanently removed Trump's account, claiming that further tweets from the then-president posed a risk of inciting further violence. In the meantime, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has said that the video hosting giant will reinstate Trump once the "risk of violence has decreased."
Trump is seeking unspecified monetary damages and his full reinstatement to all three platforms. The lawsuits also seek to overturn Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. This critical provision allows social media sites to freely moderate their platforms without the risk of lawsuits, much like Mr. Trump's.
Section 230 has come under fire from both sides of the aisle of late. Republicans argue that the provision allows social media companies to target conservative content unfairly. Democrats say that Section 230 offers too many protections to social media companies, keeping them from taking a more proactive approach to community moderation.
Responding to the lawsuits, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, whose members include Twitter, Facebook and Google said that their members have a right to enforce community guidelines. Adding that "frivolous class action litigation will not change the fact that users - even U.S. presidents have to abide by the rules they agreed to."
The consensus among legal experts is that Trump's case is anywhere from thin to foolhardy. That's because first amendment protections also extend to private companies who can't be forced to host or publish speech that they find objectionable.
"The lawsuits turn the constitutional argument on its head," Eric Goldman, associate dean of research and professor at Santa Clara University School of law, told Yahoo Finance. "They (social media companies) have a First Amendment protected right to decide what's best for their audience. And the lawsuit is designed to strip them of that right. It's the lawsuit that's unconstitutional."
Eugene Volokh, professor at UCLA Los Angeles School of Law, says that Trump may have a slight chance. Although this depends on how well Trump's lawyers can prove that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube acted on behalf of the government in the days following the Capitol Hill riots.
"That might be enough to show the government action needed for a viable First Amendment claim," he told the Wall Street Journal. "But that's a big if."