Trump to Sue Facebook and Twitter for Banning Him

     Former President  Donald Trump announced today that he will sue Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who banned the former president from posting on their platforms after the Jan. 6 Capitol Riots in which mobs of Trump supporters sought to violently disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election by storming the houses of Congress.

     America First Policy Institute, a nonprofit formed earlier this year by alumni of the Trump administration, will support Trump’s legal efforts.

     On Jan. 8, two days after the riot at the US Capitol, Twitter permanently banned the then-president’s handle: @realDonaldTrump, which Trump created in March 2009, before sending out his first tweet on May 4, 2009, less than seven years before he became president.

     After building attracting worldwide attention and gaining 88.9 million followers by 2021, Twitter kicked Trump off the platform for his role in organizing and encouraging the Capitol rioters to “Stop the Steal,” in an election in which the former president continues to say was rife with fraud, despite an utter lack of evidence proving that he merely did not receive enough votes.

      Ten minutes after Vice President Mike Pence, who the president had pressured to reject and overturn the election results, was removed from the Senate on 2:14pm on Jan. 6, Trump tweeted, "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitition."

    To protest the victory of President Joe Biden protesters who had previously attended a Trump rally, had made a makeshift gallows with a noose, were chanting, "Hang Mike Pence," in the halls of Congress, which they had stormed.

    After Facebook sent Trump’s case to its Oversight Board to rule on whether the ban should be permanent, the company banned Trump until at least 2023.

     In all, at least 10 social media platforms have banned Trump, whose team launched its own social media site, GETTR, last week.

(Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)