Conservative author filmmaker and podcaster Dinesh D'Souza spoke on Monday about Trump's new lawsuits against Big Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter has ample grounds to win in court. "Big news today: Trump announces massive lawsuits against digital media censors, Twitter and Facebook. "
"And of course, some people say right away, and foolishly, 'Oh, Trump can't do that. These platforms have Section 230 protection, Dinesh.' Well, Section 230 protection only immunizes these social media platforms from being sued over content that is allowed on those platforms."
"So, if somebody, for example, libels me on Facebook, I can file a lawsuit against them but I can't sue Facebook for allowing that content to appear. That's what Section 230 protection means. But it doesn't mean that Twitter is protected, for example, for statements, let's say libelous statements, made by Twitter. Trump can certainly sue Twitter over that."
"It also doesn't mean that Twitter can't be sued, or Facebook, for violations of their contract with users. When you sign up for these platforms, there is a mutual contract, and Twitter and Facebook are bound by the terms of the contract as we are, as users.
".... The Trump lawsuit needs to be seen in the wider context of pushback, I would say global pushback, against social media censorship in general, but Twitter in particular," continues D'Souza, mentioning international cases in countries such as India and Nigeria. In fact, the Nigerian government famously suspended Twitter from the country after the platform deleted a post by the Nigerian president.
Dinesh goes on to point out how Big Tech is essentially interfering with the democratic process when they censor heads of state in such a manner:
"So, even in the US, when Trump was banned on these platforms, I don't think people grasp the full significance of the ban, because we have a two-party system. And think about it: these platforms all say 'we're promoting democratic debate', and then you ban, permanently, the leader of one of the two parties."
"What does that mean? That basically means you are allowing only one party to have its say. How is that different from what happens with digital censorship in places like North Korea, which is a one-party state, or China, which is a one-party state?"
"So, there are chilling global ramifications here."
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