Lawyers, reporters and other people who still have access to social media went to town Wednesday on former President Donald Trump’s moonshot lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter and Google.
Trump announced he’s seeking class-action lawsuits against the tech giants for what he claims is an infringement of his First Amendment rights. He says the companies violated his right to freedom of speech by disabling his social media accounts in January.
Trump was banned from Twitter and suspended from YouTube and Facebook for violating each of the platforms’ policies after he incited his supporters to attempt a violent overthrow of the government on Jan. 6.
Legal experts have anticipated that the lawsuits have little chance of success. The First Amendment applies to government censorship. It does not prevent private companies from moderating content on their platforms, and social networks have the right to remove users who violate their terms, a number of experts pointed out.
As they tend to do, critics online nitpicked the filings, pointing out a number of flaws ― and funnies.
Conservative attorney George Conway and several others noted that Trump’s lawyers appeared to be arguing that the tech companies were in league with the government ... when Trump was the president:
The lawsuit also clashes with some of Trump’s previous legal arguments. When he was sued for blocking people on Twitter as president, his legal team argued that he should be able to do as he pleases with his private account.
Notably, Trump began fundraising immediately after announcing the news, which some saw as the true intention behind the long-shot lawsuit.
And finally, critics poked fun at the on-brand, motley crew of lawyers Trump assembled for the case.