Donald Trump files for preliminary injunction; wants Twitter to reinstate his account

Former US President Donald Trump, who was banned from Twitter and Facebook in the wake of the US Capitol attack on January 6, has now asked a federal judge in Florida to force the microblogging platform to reinstate his account. Trump in July sued Twitter, Facebook and Google along with the chief executives, alleging that the platforms are unlawfully silencing the conservative viewpoints. On October 1, the ex-US President requested a preliminary injunction against Twitter in Miami. 

As per Sky News report, in the preliminary injunction against Twitter Trump has said that Twitter was “coerced” by Congress members to suspend his account that had tens of millions of followers. Jack Dorsey’s Twitter was one among several tech giants that chose to ban Trump’s social media accounts in the wake of the shocking insurrection of the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6 when Congress convened to certify the election win of now US President Joe Biden. 

The riot outside the US federal building came immediately after a speech by Trump and claimed multiple lives. In the address, the defeated Republican reiterated baseless claims of election ‘fraud’ in the presidential elections that took place in November 2020. As per Sky News, Trump’s lawyer said 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 has also reportedly added that Twitter has allowed the Taliban to tweet constantly about the military activities in Afghanistan. However, the former US President’s lawyer noted that Trump was censored even during his time at the White House and that his posts were labelled as “misleading information” or “glorifying violence.”

Trump says he ‘should’ve banned Twitter’

Earlier in June this year, when Nigeria banned Twitter, Trump said he should have banned the social media giant during his four-year tenure.

Lamenting his leniency towards social media during his presidency, Trump issued an official statement through his website said that he should have taken action against Facebook but its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg “kept calling” the former US President.

While criticising social media giants including Facebook and Twitter, Trump said on Tuesday, "Who are they to dictate good and evil if they themselves are evil? Perhaps I should have done it while I was President. But Zuckerberg kept calling me and coming to the White House for dinner telling me how great I was. 2024?"

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