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Aug. 15, 2021 - Epoch Times
20:49
Class-Action Lawsuit Against Twitter, Facebook and Google Filed by Trump | Facts Matter
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Good evening.
Earlier today, President Trump announced that he is filing what he's calling a major class action lawsuit against Twitter, Facebook, and Google for suspending his social media accounts.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden has just announced a new plan to get more Americans vaccinated.
His administration will be sending government agents, agents of the federal government, to do door-to-door canvassing in order to encourage people to get the shot.
They will be sending people door-to-door across this country.
And lastly, leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America, which is the largest Marxist political organization in the entire country, they recently flew over to Venezuela in order to meet with Nicolas Maduro, the socialist dictator.
What do they talk about?
Well, let's go through that together.
This is your semi-daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
Now, let's begin today's discussion by talking about President Trump.
But actually, just before we do, as a quick aside, right there at the top of the description box is a link to Epoch TV, our brand new no-censorship video platform where you can find all of the awesome Epoch Times video programs like The Larry Elder Show, American Thought Leaders, China in Focus, Counterpunch with Trevor Loudon, Life and Times, and our show Facts Matter, And on there, we publish exclusive episodes that I just frankly don't feel comfortable publishing here on YouTube because of the censorship.
Again, that link will be right there at the top of the description box.
I hope you check it out.
And now let's really talk about President Trump.
Specifically, earlier today, President Trump announced that he is filing lawsuits against Twitter, Facebook, as well as Google for suspending his social media accounts.
Today, by the way, marks the six-month anniversary of his accounts being taken down from those three platforms.
Now, in announcing these lawsuits, President Trump, as well as his team, they are saying that these lawsuits are about protecting the First Amendment right to free speech, arguing that President Trump's rights were denied when these big tech companies decided to ban him.
Here's what President Trump said as a part of his statement.
We will prove that this censorship is unlawful, it's unconstitutional, and it's completely un-American.
Furthermore, in announcing their plans, President Trump's team, they said that these lawsuits will be filed in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida, and they also said that they will ask the judge to order an immediate halt to social media companies' alleged shadow banning, censoring, blacklisting, and canceling of people who express political viewpoints that are outside of the mainstream. and canceling of people who express political viewpoints that are Now, in regards to the effect of social media companies' control over the political discourse in this country, President Trump said it succinctly in his statement.
Liberty is under increased threats and attack by a lot of different sides.
Social media has given extraordinary power to a group of big tech giants that are working with the government, the mainstream media, and a large segment of a political party to suppress the views of the American people, and they've been very successful at that.
Now for your reference, back in January of this year, Twitter, Facebook, as well as Google, which owns YouTube, they all banned President Trump from their platforms over his claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and they also alleged that he contributed to the violence on January the 6th over at the U.S. Capitol.
Twitter executives have said that President Trump's ban will be permanent, Facebook imposed a two-year ban on his account, and Google, which again owns YouTube, they said that it would reinstate him once they determined that the risk of violence has decreased.
However, critics of this blanket ban against President Trump have argued that it wasn't necessarily about what he said, but instead it was a way to stop him from communicating with his base and dampen his influence on national politics.
For instance, here's a quote from Candace Owens, who is a conservative political commentator.
Here's what she said.
For your reference, by the way, Section 230 of the Federal Communications Decency Act is the law that's responsible for these social media companies, these big tech companies, from being recognized as platforms rather than as publishers.
And it has effectively shielded them from being held liable for the content that their users put on their platforms.
However, both Republicans as well as conservatives over the last several years have been saying that these companies are misusing this rule to get immunity from being liable for anything while at the same time acting as a publisher when they censor conservative viewpoints.
Now Trump's lawyers, they said that the lawsuit will focus on the provisions within Section 230, which they argued was created back in the 1990s to protect children from harmful content online.
However, they state that the way in which big tech firms are currently using Section 230 as basically a shield oversteps what it originally intended to do.
During the press conference, one of President Trump's lawyers, Pam Bondi, who is also Florida's, formerly Florida's attorney general, she said this about social media companies.
They are not immune anymore.
Furthermore, this lawsuit will seek both compensatory as well as punitive damages to both President Trump as well as anyone else who falls into the class action lawsuit.
The dollar amount of these damages will be determined at trial.
That's what they said when they announced the lawsuit.
Now, in regards to these punitive damages, here's what President Trump said specifically.
We asked the court to impose punitive damages on these social media giants.
We're going to hold big tech very accountable.
This is the first of numerous other lawsuits.
Now, President Trump also announced that his legal effort is being supported by the America First Policy Institute, which is a conservative nonprofit, and he also added that thousands of other people may join the lawsuit as well.
And so we'll have to see where this lawsuit ultimately goes, and given the broad and significant nature of it, very likely it'll end up in front of the Supreme Court.
And there has been some indication that the Supreme Court might be open to hearing such a case.
That's because you might remember that two years ago, President Trump blocked some users on Twitter, which prevented them from being able to view or comment on his Twitter posts.
Those users then filed a lawsuit against President Trump, which they won at the appellate level.
A U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with them, they ruled in their favor, and they said that President Trump violated these people's First Amendment rights when he blocked them on Twitter.
Now, President Trump then appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, but by the time that the case actually made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, he had already lost his Twitter account and that made the case moot, meaning that it was irrelevant and the Supreme Court dismissed the entire thing.
However, in that case, there is something that's worth highlighting.
That's because Justice Clarence Thomas, he agreed with the decision to dismiss the case because it was moot, but he issued an opinion statement that is really worth reading.
Here's what it said.
The disparity between Twitter's control and Mr.
Trump's control is stark, to say the least.
Mr.
Trump blocked several people from interacting with his messages.
Twitter barred Mr.
Trump not only from interacting with a few users, but removed him from the entire platform, thus barring all Twitter users from interacting with his messages.
Under its terms of service, Twitter can remove any person from the platform, including the President of the United States, at any time or for any reason.
Now, just to pause here for a moment, here Justice Thomas is referring to the fact that while President Trump stopped a few people from being able to read his posts, and he was successfully sued for it, Twitter, on the other hand, kicked President Trump off of their platform altogether and effectively blocked millions of people from reading and interacting with his posts.
So there's a big disparity there.
Then Clarence Thomas continues.
The petitions highlight two important facts.
Today's digital platforms provide avenues for historically unprecedented amounts of speech, including speech by government actors.
Also unprecedented, however, is the concentrated control of so much speech in the hands of a few private parties.
Now, of course, some people argue here that these companies are not the only options out there and that a person can use other platforms if he so chooses.
However, Justice Thomas says that it does not matter that companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter are not the only ways to distribute speech as long as their power to do so is unequaled.
Here's what he wrote.
A person always could choose to avoid the toll bridge or train and instead swim across the Charles River or hike the Oregon Trail.
But in assessing whether a company exercises substantial market power, what matters is whether the alternatives are comparable.
For many of today's digital platforms, nothing is.
And the last part of the letter that I would like to highlight, it alludes to what might be coming up the pipeline.
Because Justice Thomas, he wrote that...
We will soon have no choice but to address how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated, privately owned information infrastructure such as digital platforms.
There are arguments suggesting digital platforms such as Twitter or Facebook are sufficiently akin to common carriers or places of accommodation to be regulated in this manner.
And so, it looks like he might be alluding to the fact that, at least in his opinion, big tech firms could be regulated like utilities in the very near future.
And perhaps this new lawsuit by President Trump, it might very well be the catalyst for the Supreme Court to address this issue.
But we'll just have to wait and see if that actually happens.
If you would like to read more about this lawsuit from President Trump, the links to it will be down in the description box below this video for you to check out.
And now let's talk about Marxism in America.
Hello?
Hey Roman, it's me.
Nah, I'm just kidding.
I wanted to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, which is an awesome company called AMAC, or A-M-A-C, and it stands for the Association of Mature American Citizens.
Now, I do consider myself a mature American citizen, but I'm about 19 years too young to join AMAC. However, if you or someone in your family is 50 years old or over, I would consider joining because they are essentially the conservative alternative to the AARP and they offer three main benefits to their members.
The first is the money-saving benefit because they partner with a ton of retailers across the country and offer you discounts on things like vitamins, insurance policies, and so on.
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The second is that members get a subscription to their magazine.
And even though I'm not a member, I have read their magazine and it's filled with thought-provoking articles.
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And then the third benefit, which a lot of people say is their favorite, is that AMAC fights on Capitol Hill against what they're calling the socialist storm that's brewing in America.
So again, I would highly recommend you check them out.
It's not too expensive.
It's only $16 per year, but it looks like the benefits outweigh the cost by a wide margin.
Again, you can go over to amac.us forward slash facts matter or just click in the link in the description box below. And AMAC, thank you so much for sponsoring our episode. Now, Roman in the studio, back to you. And now let's talk about the DSA, which stands for the Democratic Socialists of America, which is America's largest Marxist political organization.
And four days ago, leaders from the DSA, they met with Nicolas Maduro, who is Venezuela's socialist dictator.
The meeting was confirmed by a Virginia chapter of the DSA who wrote this on Twitter.
And below that tweet is a video, which was actually posted by Nicolas Maduro himself, which shows the actual meeting taking place.
You can see Nicolas Maduro there in the center, and around him are leaders of the DSA. Now, in terms of the objectives of the meeting, Here's how state media in Venezuela described it.
And mind you, the English in the translation is a little bit awkward, but you'll get the gist.
Venezuela strengthens ties of cooperation, brotherhood, and solidarity with activists and the people of the United States who fight for democracy and values such as peace and sovereignty of the peoples of the world to strengthen the fight against the blockade and the coercive and unilateral measures imposed by the government of the United States.
And so again, I just want to summarize.
Leaders from America's largest Marxist political organization, they went over to Venezuela to meet with their socialist dictator.
And during that meeting, they discussed how they can work together to fight against the coercive and unilateral measures being imposed by the government.
Now, this would just be a little news blip, except for the fact that the DSA is gaining traction in this country.
For instance, on their website, the DSA claims to have over 92,000 members, and they have chapters, allegedly, in all 50 states.
Furthermore, several current members of Congress are members of DSA, including Rashida Tlaib, as well as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In fact, here is a statement from Ms.
Cortez from back in March.
I went through a process of earning the DSA endorsement, And that was in addition to stitching a collective together of the movement for black lives and the movement for immigrant rights.
And after Ms.
Cortez was first elected into Congress back in 2018, that drew more attention to the DSA. In fact, they claim that after her first election, the DSA had about 10,000 new members join their organization.
And it's also worth noting that both Cori Bush as well as Jamal Bowman, both of them members of Congress right now, they were both endorsed by the DSA. And in terms of specifically what this organization is fighting for, what the DSA is fighting for, well, they are unabashedly socialist.
When you go over to their website, at the very top it says, quote, We know our economic system is rooted in white supremacy and the capitalist class depends on racism to divide and oppress the working class.
And when you go a little further down, there's an explanation for how socialism is the solution.
And there is a subsection called Socialists in Office, which says...
You've heard of Bernie and AOC, but did you know there are dozens of DSA members running for office right now?
And so again, just to recap, leaders of this Marxist political organization, which is having more and more of an influence in the US Congress, went over to Venezuela in order to meet with the socialist dictator and figure out how they can fight the blockade of the United States, how they can fight against the policies currently being enacted by the United States government. how they can fight against the policies currently being enacted Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to the DSA for comment on this meeting, However, they did not get back to us.
However, we can get a glimpse into their thinking by reading a statement that they released back in March.
Here's part of what it said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with right-wing opposition leader Juan Guaido and, illegitimately and against the wishes of the Venezuelan people, recognized him as interim president of Venezuela.
Now, I want to pause here for a moment and give you a bit of context.
Back in 2018, Venezuela held their presidential elections.
Nicolas Maduro won that election, but there was a lot of evidence that the election was actually rigged.
And so the Venezuelan legislature called Maduro a usurper, and they appointed another man, who was the leader of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the legitimate interim president of Venezuela.
And so since then, the U.S., Canada, Europe, almost every country in Latin America, as well as Australia, they all recognized Guido as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
However, other countries like China, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Cuba, they all recognize Nicolas Maduro.
And the Democratic Socialists of America, they are arguing that America should join those countries in recognizing Maduro.
So then the statement continues...
We take this occasion to reiterate our condemnation of historic and ongoing meddling by the U.S. in Venezuelan internal affairs, and we call on DSA-endorsed candidates and elected officials to use their positions to decry all U.S. interference in Venezuela, and on its chapters and members to organize protests against its interference and hold educational events to learn more about how to support movements for Bolivarian socialism in the 21st century.
That's a pretty amazing statement.
Now, one thing that I wonder when I read statements like that, or when I read about any of the actions by the DSA in general, is whether all this is actually legal or not.
Because the DSA is an openly socialist organization.
They do not hide either their Marxist roots or their communist intentions.
And so the question is this...
Is what they're doing actually legal?
Because you might not know this, but on the books, America has something called the Communist Control Act of 1954, which outlaws the Communist Party of the United States.
It made being a party member punishable by a $10,000 fine, five years in prison, as well as loss of American citizenship, and it also criminalized membership in, or support for, what it calls Communist Action Organizations.
However, after that law was passed, it was never really enforced.
In fact, the Communist Party USA actually still exists.
Their headquarters is not too far away from where we filmed the show in New York City.
However, it does beg the question of whether the actions of the Democratic Socialists of America falls under the purview of the Communist Control Act.
We'll have to see if anyone ever takes them up on it.
Regardless, if you would like to read more about this meeting between the leaders of the DSA as well as Nicolas Maduro, the link to that story will be down there in the description box below this video for you to check out, which, by the way, is that same little description box that is right below that like button, which I hope you take a moment to smash.
Because it goes without saying that videos that are like this, talking honestly about what is happening in this world right now, are routinely censored by big tech giants like YouTube.
However, when you smash that like button below this video, you are forcing the YouTube algorithm to share this video out to potentially...
Thousands of more people letting the truth be known far and wide.
And now let's talk a little bit about Joe Biden's outreach.
You know that sweet, sweet feeling when you're sitting at home on Sunday, tired from a long week of work, maybe you're enjoying a cup of coffee, listening to the birds singing outside, and then suddenly you get a knock on the door.
You get up, you walk over and see who it is, only to find out that it's a pair of government officials who are there to ask you whether you've been vaccinated or not.
Now that sounds like a bit of a joke, but it might actually be coming true in the coming months.
That's because just yesterday, Joe Biden, as well as several other White House officials, they announced a plan wherein the federal government will conduct door-to-door outreach in targeted communities in order to boost COVID vaccination rates.
During a statement, Joe Biden said that because millions of Americans are unvaccinated, And due to the so-called Delta variant of the virus that's now spreading, he said that his administration will attempt to ramp up vaccination efforts, which includes this door-to-door canvassing.
Specifically, he said that people will be knocking on doors to get help to the remaining people who aren't vaccinated.
Now, Jen Psaki, who is the White House press secretary, she further clarified what Joe Biden actually meant by saying that the administration's efforts will include targeted by community door-to-door outreach to get remaining Americans vaccinated.
You don't just give up just because you haven't reached every single person.
She further added that the first communities which will be targeted will be those with lower vaccination rates and that the door-to-door outreach efforts will aim to get information about vaccines to the people who have not received them yet.
Now, in terms of where these communities specifically are, According to a statement that was made last week by Dr.
Rochelle Walensky, who is the director of the CDC, she said that there are around 1,000 counties in America that have less than 30% of their citizens who are vaccinated.
And she also added that they are mainly located in the southeast and midwest regions of the country.
And then in terms of who will actually be doing this canvassing, the White House said that there will be teams composed of officials from the CDC, from FEMA, as well as from other federal health agencies as well.
Now, no specific details about this door-to-door outreach were provided, and neither Jen Psaki nor Joe Biden clarified about the details of how this program will actually be carried out.
We here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to the White House for further comment, but we have yet to hear back.
Regardless, if you would like to read more about what we know thus far in regards to this outreach effort, And lastly, as we already mentioned in several previous episodes, on the very same day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, YouTube made the unilateral decision to demonetize our program.
We can now no longer run any ads before, during, or after episodes, and the Super Chat feature has just been disabled.
They're essentially snuffing out our ability to monetize our program.
However, we here at the Epoch Times, we took action, we didn't take it lying down, and we created something very cool.
It's called Epic TV.
It's our brand new no-censorship video platform where you will find all the awesome Epoch Times video programs like the Larry Elder Show, American Thought Leaders, Crossroads, China in Focus, Life and Times, and our show Facts Matter— And again, on there we publish exclusive episodes that you will not find here on YouTube.
And also we publish awesome documentaries on there as well.
In fact, yesterday we premiered an awesome documentary called America Rewritten.
Take a look at a trailer for it.
The American story was once seen as a light of strength and freedom for the world.
It created a government by the people and for the people.
But rights were given not by leaders, but by God.
Yet now the very fabric of the nation is under assault.
What is the real story of America?
Why did the Founding Fathers choose a republic over a democracy?
And what would the world be if the bedrock of the American Constitution was lost?
If you'd like to check out the documentary, if you'd like to check out our exclusive episodes or any of the other phenomenal programs over on Epic TV, the link to it will be right there at the top of the description box.
I hope you click on it.
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I hope you subscribe.
And I hope that you join us on this journey of exploring this beautiful world through honors journalism that's based in truth and tradition.
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Subscribe to this YouTube channel if you haven't already in order to get this type of honest news content delivered directly into your YouTube feed while YouTube still allows it.
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And then lastly, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times.
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