Former President Trump has asked a federal judge in Florida to force Twitter to restore his account.
Trump has asked judge to order Twitter to lift ban on his Twitter account to reach millions of his followers.
Trump’s lawyers filed a preliminary injunction motion against Twitter and its CEO, Jack Dorsey, on Friday. According to the filing, Twitter was “coerced” into banning Trump.
“Coerced by members of the United States Congress, operating under an unconstitutional immunity granted by a permissive federal statute, and acting directly with federal officials,” the filing states.
Twitter did not respond to the filing.
Trump, who used Twitter frequently during his campaign and presidency, was kicked off the platform following the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol, which saw his supporters storm the building, delaying the certification of the 2020 election.
Following the riot, Twitter determined that Trump’s tweets posed a “risk of further incitement of violence.”
The former president has also been barred from using Facebook until at least 2023.
In July, Trump filed a lawsuit against Twitter and Facebook, claiming that the platforms were silencing conservative voices.
The former president’s attorneys claim in the filing on Friday that 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.”
The filing also claims that Twitter selectively enforced its policies, citing the appearance of the Taliban on the platform in August.
“In the weeks that followed, Twitter enabled the Taliban to regularly tweet about their military conquests and victories throughout Afghanistan. The Taliban’s Twitter account is still active today “According to the filing.
Trump hopeful the judge will order Twitter to lift the ban placed on his account to enable him reach his followers.
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