Trump's de-platforming lawsuit turns on the idea that Twitter and others took down content under pressure from Dem politicians, thus becoming state actors who can be sued under the First Amendment. 1/
That's... not how state action works. But politicians pressuring platforms to take down lawful speech is problematic. This practice is called "jawboning," and @dbambauer wrote a useful article about it. I also discuss it in Who Do You Sue. 2/ 
The irony (OK, one of many) is that Trump was Jawboner in Chief. He tried his best to strongarm platforms into adopting *his* preferred speech policies. So much so that @CenDemTech sued him. (When the President does stuff, that really is state action & can violate the 1st Am) 3/
@CenDemTech Since the 2020 election, there have been a couple of these jawboning cases brought by conservatives pointing to Democratic pressure on platforms. The platforms keep winning. @ericgoldman covers these cases well on his blog. Here's one: blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2021/… 4/
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
