Judge dismisses Trump complaint over Twitter ban

Former President Donald Trump wanted a federal judge to force him to regain access to his blocked Twitter account, but the judge dismissed the case Friday afternoon (local time). Twitter and other social media platforms banned Trump last year after his supporters stormed the Capitol.

The judge indicated that Trump’s lawyers could amend the complaint and try again, but then they must demonstrate that blocking Trump’s account is tantamount to government censorship. “That’s not an easy claim,” the judge warned. Trump’s team of lawyers says they are thinking about next steps.

Trump had more than 88 million followers on his Twitter account and frequently used the platform as a means of communication. According to the Republican, Twitter exercises “a degree of power and control over political discourse in this country that is immeasurable, historically unprecedented and extremely dangerous to open democratic debate,” his lawyers said in the petition to the court.

The former president believes that Twitter has unfairly “censored” him by putting warnings on his messages. Since the presidential elections in November, the platform has placed warnings on messages from the president in which he spread inaccuracies, such as about the results of the elections. The messaging site pointed out that information in those tweets is “possibly misleading” or “questioned”.