On May 28, 2021, the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed a federal civil rights class action lawsuit against President Biden, Twitter, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, alleging that Twitter is censoring speech critical of the administration’s COVID-19 vaccination policy on behalf of the Biden administration in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on behalf of the named plaintiff, Dr. Colleen Huber, a well-respected and licensed naturopathic medical doctor in Arizona. After posting a “tweet” on her Twitter account from a well-known Israeli newspaper reporting on findings of mortality rates relating to the COVID-19 vaccinations used in Israel, Twitter permanently suspended Dr. Huber for purportedly violating Twitter’s COVID-19 Policy. As the complaint alleges, Twitter is in reality enforcing the Biden administration’s policy to silence anyone critical of COVID-19 vaccinations.
In addition to addressing Twitter’s and the Biden administration’s violations of Dr. Huber’s constitutional liberties, the class action seeks to protect the rights of everyone else similarly subject to censorship by Twitter and to protect those individuals in the future from this censorship.
AFLC Co-Founder and Senior Counsel David Yerushalmi commented:
“In effect, the Biden administration has enlisted and effectively deputized big social media as enforcement agents to silence criticism of government policy. This is not about the facts or about science. This, pure and simple, is government censorship of speech–the viewpoint of which the government disagrees. That is patently unconstitutional and demonstrates fairly effectively that neither President Biden nor Twitter cares one wit about freedom of speech or science, for that matter.”
AFLC Co-Founder and Senior Counsel Robert Muise added:
“For too long, social media giants like Twitter have been able to do the bidding of the Democrat Party and other left-wing organizations with impunity. Twitter uses its immense power to shape public policy and opinion in favor of these leftists. It even uses its power to influence elections. Twitter has become an instrument of influence for radicals in the government. The time has come to stop this dangerous, unchecked, propaganda arm of the Left. We intend to do so through this litigation.”
The complaint asks the federal court to declare the censorship by Twitter on behalf of the Biden administration unconstitutional and to order the end of this discriminatory policy. In addition, the complaint challenges the immunity granted Twitter and the other social media giants by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”) as unconstitutional. Initially, section 230 of the CDA was meant to encourage free speech, but in reality, it has come to be used as a club by big tech to censor speech that is contrary to the agenda and messaging of their left-wing allies in government.
Complaint.ecf filed