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Trump wants to tweet again: Ex-US president requests US judge to force Twitter into restoring account

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: Oct 02, 2021, 10:43 PM IST
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(File Photo) Former US President Donald Trump Photograph:(Reuters)

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Former US President Donald Trump's Twitter account was suspended after his supporters attacked US Capitol on January 6 this year. He was booted from other social media platforms as well. Now Trump has alleged that his Twitter account was suspended after the social media giant was 'coerced ' by members of US Congress

Former US President Donald Trump on Friday asked a federal judge in Florida to force Twitter to restore his account. The social media giant had removed his account in January this year citing risk of incitement of violence.

Trump has alleged before US District Court for the Southern District of Florida that Twitter was "coerced" by members of US Congress to suspend his account. He has filed a request for a preliminary injunction against Twitter.

Twitter and several other social media platforms banned Trump after on January 6 this year, mob of Trump supporters attacked US Capitol building. The attack was preceded by Trump's speech to the crowd that included baseless allegations of poll fraud during US Presidential Election 2020. Trump's claims of voting fraud had been rejected by multiple courts and state election officials.

Twitter "exercises a degree of power and control over political discourse in this country that is immeasurable, historically unprecedented, and profoundly dangerous to open democratic debate," Trump's lawyers said in the filing. The filing was reported earlier by Bloomberg.

Twitter declined to comment on the filing when contacted by Reuters.

At the time of removing Trump's account permanently, Twitter said his tweets had violated the platform's policy barring "glorification of violence". The company said at the time that Trump's tweets that led to the removal were "highly likely" to encourage people to replicate what happened in the Capitol riots.

Before he was blocked, Trump had more than 88 million followers on Twitter and used it as his social media megaphone.

In the court filing, Trump argued Twitter allowed the Taliban to tweet regularly about their military victories across Afghanistan, but censored him during his presidency by labeling his tweets as "misleading information" or indicating they violated the company's rules against "glorifying violence".

(With inputs from agencies)