Former President Donald Trump “wrote” an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal defending a lawsuit he filed against Facebook, Google, and Twitter, claiming that the tech giants are violating his First Amendment rights by banning his accounts for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
“One of the gravest threats to our democracy today is a powerful group of Big Tech corporations that have teamed up with government to censor the free speech of the American people,” Trump ostensibly wrote in the op-ed published Thursday. “This is not only wrong—it is unconstitutional. To restore free speech for myself and for every American, I am suing Big Tech to stop it…”
“This coercion and coordination is unconstitutional,” the twice-impeached former president declared. “The Supreme Court has held that Congress can’t use private actors to achieve what the Constitution prohibits it from doing itself. In effect, Big Tech has been illegally deputized as the censorship arm of the U.S. government. This should alarm you no matter your political persuasion. It is unacceptable, unlawful and un-American.”
It didn’t take long for critics on Twitter to slam both the op-ed itself and WSJ’s decision to publish it.
tremendous article, the greatest article ever, so many words, only the best words …
— Tobias Burri (@tobias_burri) July 8, 2021
LOL, its also LEGAL under US law. this little document you agree to called a TOS spells it out for you.
— Brian Verhoeven (@DrTarnak) July 8, 2021
Big Tech has been illegally deputized as the censorship arm of the U.S. government. This should alarm you no matter your political persuasion. It is unacceptable, unlawful and un-American, writes Donald Trump https://t.co/TOyVnglcD6
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) July 8, 2021
This is like saying the Wall Street Journal is censoring me because they won’t let me write an opinion piece whenever I want.
— Which Fox? (@rich_fox) July 8, 2021
Trump screams “I AM BEING CENSORED!” from the editorial page of a mainstream international media outlet.
Shame on you, @WSJ, shame on you, @WSJopinion. https://t.co/Kk8jRxk5At
— Leah McElrath 🏳️🌈 (@leahmcelrath) July 8, 2021
Any statement by Trump is suspect. That especially goes for statements with the phrase "believe me".
— Chuck Staples (@cjstaples) July 8, 2021
This is garbage and you know it. Do better.
— Aviv Russ (@jewtangclan3000) July 8, 2021
Agree: he would have said "they are censoring bigly, like nobody has ever seen before!"
— Bill (@rider33414) July 8, 2021
Possible with help he wrote it. It's senseless so it sounds like him but it's awfully literate for a man whos most erudite word contains 5 letters.
— Judy Riggenbach (@Riggimortis) July 8, 2021
No,lying about a pandemic,spreading dangerous misinformation,telling big lies about an election that was won fairly, encouraging a violent riot in which people died is unacceptable,unlawful and un-American!! Social media should be a vessel of positivity!!
— Dianne Robuck (@dpooks47) July 8, 2021
I’m confused. I thought #conservatives didn’t want govt to shape culture, but private entities to.
As private entities, shouldn’t #conservatives be happy that Google, Facebook, etc are creating norms instead of govt?
— GreenNeck (@greenneck) July 8, 2021
— Josh Nyerges (@NyRAGEous) July 8, 2021
