Former President Donald Trump gave highly-frustrated Americans a reason to hope last week when he announced his class-action lawsuit against censorious Big Tech giants Twitter, Facebook, and Google. The Silicon Valley triumvirate has maintained a stranglehold on information in our country, and everyday Americans are tired of their speech being censored, deleted, and ‘given context’ by leftist elites who claim to know better. The New York Times and other corporate media giants were quick to defend their allies in California, castigating Trump’s lawsuit as frivolous and doomed to fail. But the fact is that Trump’s case stands on interesting, albeit new and questionable, legal footing. The outcome could be as the media paints it, or it could represent an expansion of the First Amendment and the beginning of the end for our Big Tech overlords. Trump’s legal team lays out a fascinating theory that’s been gaining ground in academic circles for several years. In simple terms, they argue that private companies like Google become subject to First Amendment restrictions as soon as they begin to act like state agents. SEE ALSO: Kamala Harris’s Belated Border Visit is This Administration’s Most Embarrassing Moment It’s true that the First Amendment only applies to the government, not private companies. However, when Twitter acts under the authority, influence, or pressure of the government, the theory goes that it becomes a state actor and forfeits the right to ignore the First Amendment protections that Americans expect in the public square. Again, when someone like Twitter cozies up to the government and does its bidding, it could become a government actor. Trump and other victims of Big Tech censorship have every right to sue on First Amendment grounds, and it’s going to be up to the courts—and potentially the Supreme Court—to decide if First Amendment protections can apply to private actors acting under government authority, influence and coercion, or with their cooperation. It’s a novel theory, but it’s one whose time may have come. Click here to read the rest of Mark’s article in The Washington Times (pay wall)!
