Former President Trump has filed another lawsuit against Facebook, requesting that a federal judge order the Big Tech platform to reinstate his account.
Trump was suspended from most significant social media platforms in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. Later in the year, he filed class-action lawsuits against Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and their respective CEOs.
The secondary filing, dated Oct. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Souther District of Florida, seeks a preliminary injunction on Facebook’s ban as his earlier suit makes its way through the court.
The filing reads: “The First Amendment rights of [Trump’s] millions of Facebook Users – to receive his messages and to comment to one another thereon – will be irreparably injured as well. At the same time, by de-platforming the presumptive head and most popular member of the Republican Party, cutting him off from the most effective and direct forms of communication with potential voters, Defendant is threatening irreparable damage to the Republican Party’s prospects in the 2022 and 2024 elections.”
John Coale, the lead counsel for the Trump lawsuits said that the timing of the preliminary injunction filing “seems appropriate … since they’ve been big in the news lately for all the issues they’re facing,” referring to Facebook’s shocking outage earlier this week as well as the explosive whistleblower testimony that captivated the attention of Capitol Hill.
Trump is looking to get reinstated on several platforms, among other reasons, to be able to reach his devoted audience before the 2022 election cycle gets into full swing. Being able to easily and quickly communicate his views, endorsements, and political thoughts was a key way that the former President communicated with his supporters leading up to his election and throughout his tenure in office.
