Who said Don’t Mess with Texas? Twitter apparently did not get the message and is fighting back! The blue bird filed a lawsuit against Texas AG Ken Paxton in California federal court yesterday. Here are the money paragraphs:
“AG Paxton has long disagreed with Twitter’s content moderation decisions, and made that displeasure widely known. But this disagreement turned to official action against the company after Twitter suspended President Trump’s account on January 8, 2021. Just five days later, on January 13, 2021, AG Paxton issued a civil investigative demand (“CID”) to Twitter seeking volumes of highly confidential documents concerning Twitter’s internal content moderation processes—the public disclosure of which would undermine their effectiveness, and compromise Twitter’s ability to effectively and efficiently moderate content on its platform.
Twitter sought for weeks to reach an agreement with AG Paxton that would put reasonable limits on the scope of this demand, but to no avail. Instead, AG Paxton made clear that he will use the full weight of his office, including his expansive investigatory powers, to retaliate against Twitter for having made editorial decisions with which he disagrees. Now Twitter, already targeted because of its protected activity, is left with the untenable choice to turn over highly sensitive documents or else face legal sanction.”
A copy of the full “Mess with Texas” complaint is here.
In a nutshell, Paxton announced an investigation into Twitter and other Big Tech companies shortly after January 6 saying they launched a “coordinated” effort to get Donnie Dangerous off the social media airwaves. Paxton’s investigation calls for Twitter to turn over a bunch of internal documents related to Twitter’s moderation decisions.
Twitter filed the federal lawsuit on Monday basically saying Paxton is a partisan hack, well, that didn’t actually say that; but Twitter asked the federal court that its decision is protected free speech under the 1st Amendment. The blue bird says nothing should be turned over and asks the court to pump the permanent brakes on the investigation.
The social media giant maintains that it is Constitutionally permitted “to make decisions about what content to disseminate through its platform,” which includes “the discretion to remove or otherwise restrict access to Tweets, profiles, or other content posted to Twitter.”
In other Paxton news, back in November, it was announced:
“The FBI is investigating allegations that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton broke the law in using his office to benefit a wealthy donor, according to two people with knowledge of the probe.
Federal agents are looking into claims by former members of Paxton’s staff that the high-profile Republican committed bribery, abuse of office and other crimes to help Austin real estate developer Nate Paul, the people told The Associated Press. They insisted on anonymity to discuss the investigation because it is ongoing.”
A guy accused of this, going to bat for Donnie Dangerous. . .Shocking!
***You can also find me at @DonLew87 on Twitter.
