Noah Feldman, Columnist

Trump’s Doomed Twitter Lawsuit Raises One Serious Issue

Sorry, Donald, the First Amendment lets private companies abridge free speech. But it shouldn’t become a shield for government threats.

July 9, 2021 at 10:30 AM UTC

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

He has no right.
Photo illustration by Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

Former President Donald Trump’s lawsuits against Twitter, Google and Facebook for kicking him off their platforms are sure losers, legally speaking. The First Amendment protects people against state action, and tech companies aren’t state actors.

Yet Trump’s main argument to the contrary — that congressional Democrats coerced the platforms into cutting him off by threatening to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — deserves close scrutiny. Wittingly or not, it sheds light on how Trump tried to push around the platforms during his presidency, and arguably succeeded until the Capitol attack of Jan. 6.