Twitter and the Democrat-run government of California are facing a lawsuit alleging that they colluded to suppress the First Amendment rights of Rogan O’Handley, a popular pro-Trump activist who was banned from the platform earlier this year. The complaint includes emails showing California officials directing Twitter to remove political commentary about the 2020 election from its platform.
Twitter banned O’Handley, also known by his online moniker “DC Draino,” after he tweeted the statement “most votes in history.” He had over 440,000 followers on the platform prior to his ban, which was permanent.
According to O’Handley’s lawsuit, brought by Harmeet Dhillon’s legal nonprofit, the Center for American Liberty, Twitter made its decision at the direction of California’s Office of Elections Cybersecurity, a bureau which was set up in 2018 to “educate voters” with “valid information” on elections.
Via the Center for American Liberty:
In 2018, the state government of California created the Office of Elections Cybersecurity to “educate voters” with “valid information” on election laws and procedures. And as any sensible person could predict, this office quickly devolved into a political weapon for censorship by the far-left Secretary of State’s Office, more resembling a Harry Potter like “Ministry of Approved Election Information” than a constitutionally governed state agency.
Leading up to the 2020 election and in the months following it, Twitter, at the direction government employees at the California Office of Elections Cybersecurity, discriminately removed tweets posted by conservative social media influencers criticizing Joe Biden and questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Their objective was simple—censor their political opponents.
The complaint filed by Dhillon’s nonprofit includes emails from officials in the California government to Twitter employee Kevin Kane, who was then a public policy manager at the company.
Speaking on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Harmeet Dhillon noted the central role of Alex Padilla, then California Secretary of State, who was tapped by Gov. Gavin Newsom to occupy Kamala Harris’ vacant Senate seat following the election.
“If I can add, [Padilla] was auditioning for the role of United States senator,” said Dhillon. “That’s very critical as well. He was hoping that if Kamala Harris was named the United States Vice President, he would be named by the governor to fill that role, and that’s exactly what happened. So he was actually elbowing out of the way other Democrats, and this whole contract for 35 million dollars for who to censor is so corrupt that other Democrat in the state protested about it because it was a no-bid contract given to a consultant for the Biden campaign.”
O’Handley’s full complaint against Twitter and the government of California can be read here.
Twitter declined to offer a comment on this story.
Breitbart News has reached out to Sen. Padilla for comment.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.