- Trump plans to file lawsuits against Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey Wednesday, per Axios report.
- The suits come after Twitter and Facebook booted him from their platforms following the January 6 riot.
- Trump and other Republicans have waged a war against the two firms over alleged censorship of right-wing users.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Former President Donald Trump plans to file class-action lawsuits against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, sources told Axios.
The reported suits come after both platforms booted him over risks of violence following the January 6 insurrection. It was an escalation from an ongoing war that the right waged against Big Tech, alleging that internet platforms censor conservative viewpoints.
Trump is planning to announce the lawsuits at a press conference later Wednesday morning, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. The former President has threatened a vast number of lawsuits in recent decades, though very few actually get filed.
Spokespeople for Facebook and Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Twitter declined to comment.
The pandemic, social unrest, and the 2020 presidential election presented mounting pressure from the public for social networks to tighten how they police content on their platforms.
Companies began cracking down on Trump’s posts in mid-2020 when Twitter added warning labels to his tweets questioning the legitimacy of mail-in voting for the 2020 presidential election.
He and other Republicans have increasingly criticized mainstream tech platforms for serving a liberal agenda and discriminating against conservative users, a belief that is not backed by evidence. Data shows that right-wing content flourishes online. One group of NYU researchers said earlier this year that the right’s allegations of censorship are actually a form of disinformation.
Things only escalated when Twitter and Facebook suspended him over his role in the January 6 riot. Twitter banned him indefinitely, even if he decides to run for office in 2024, and Facebook said he would remain suspended until at least January 2023.
Alternative platforms to mainstream services have sprouted up as a byproduct to the right’s beef with Big Tech. Parler, a social media website with loose rules about what people can post, gained traction in late 2020 and quickly became praised by the right, with the likes of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz among its user base.
A Fox News host said this week that he’s developing a payment platform for conservatives after Stripe and PayPal banned Trump over his role in the January 6 riot. The host, Dan Bongino, told the Washington Post that “Stripe is our target here” and that his AlignPay service is designed to combat “cancel culture.”
Most recently, a former Trump aide unveiled a new social media app called GETTR that looks suspiciously like Twitter. Many of its users, largely Trump allies, were hacked on Sunday, the day the service officially launched.