FLA. JUDGE: TWITTER’S TERMS APPLY TO FORMER PRESIDENTS
Trump dealt setback in effort to return to platform after ban
A Florida federal judge ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump’s status as a former president does not exclude him from following Twitter’s terms of service, the latest setback in his quest to get back on the social media platform after being banned this year.
U.S. District Judge Robert Scola Jr. granted Twitter’s motion to transfer the case from the Southern District of Florida to the Northern District of California, which is required by a clause in the company’s user agreement that all Twitter users sign. The case stems from Twitter permanently suspending Trump shortly after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol that led to five deaths and injuries to hundreds of people.
While Trump’s attorneys have argued that his status as former president exempts him from Twitter’s clause, and that it was in the public’s interest for the case to stay in Florida, Scola was unconvinced. In his 13-page ruling, the Miami judge noted that Trump, who lives in Florida, “has not advanced any legal authority to support his contention.”
“The Court finds that Trump’s status as President of the United States does not exclude him from the requirements of the forum selection clause in Twitter’s Terms of Service,” wrote Scola, an appointee of President Barack Obama. “The Plaintiffs have failed to satisfy their heavy burden to show that this case should not be transferred.”
The move followed a ruling from another Florida federal judge earlier this month who granted a similar request to move Trump’s lawsuit against Googleowned YouTube to a California court. Trump, who has asked a court to mandate that Twitter restore his account, has also filed a classaction lawsuit against Facebook,
arguing, with little substantiation, that social media giants are “silencing” him and other conservatives. Trump has also argued, without evidence, that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey “succumbed to the coercion efforts of Democratic lawmakers.”
Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Trump, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Neither Linda Cuadros nor a spokesperson for the American Conservative Union, who are listed as co-plaintiffs in Trump’s lawsuit, immediately responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ruling comes as Trump is fighting social media companies in the courts over alleged censorship issues, while simultaneously attempting to launch his own social media platform to, as he wrote, “stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech.” The former president announced last week he would be starting a new platform called Truth Social, even as pranksters were able to post a picture of a defecating pig to the “donaldjtrump” account on an unreleased test version of the site.
“We live in a world where the Taliban has a huge presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American President has been silenced,” Trump said. “This is unacceptable.”
Twitter banned Trump after the Jan. 6 uprising, saying it had made the decision “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Months after Trump was banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, he filed class-action lawsuits against the companies in July. The lawsuits, which legal experts and business associations say have little chance of succeeding in court, allege the companies violated Trump’s First Amendment rights by suspending his accounts. The First Amendment protects against censorship by the government, not by private companies.