Author and independent journalist Alex Berenson is suing Twitter in federal court for permanently blacklisting his account over a tweet questioning the effectiveness of existing coronavirus vaccines.
Berenson was permanently banned from the left-wing Big Tech platform in August after stating that existing vaccines did not stop infection or transmission of coronavirus.
Via Breitbart News:
Prior to his ban, Berenson had tweeted about vaccines’ failure to stop the infection and transmission of the virus, a tweet that Twitter labeled “misleading.”
“It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission,” tweeted Berenson. “Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it — at best — as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS.”
“And we want to mandate it? Insanity.”
The lawsuit states that Berenson’s claims about the vaccine were true. The legal complaint claims: “It is undisputed that vaccinated persons can contract and spread COVID-19.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, and argues that California laws defining common carriers as any company that “offers to the public to carry persons, property, or messages” limit Twitter’s right to censor its users.
Berenson’s lawyers also argue that Twitter responded to U.S. government demands in taking down his account, citing the “The extraordinarily close nexus between the July 2021 statements by senior executive branch officials—including President Biden himself—calling for censorship by such companies and Twitter’s corresponding immediate actions against Mr. Berenson.”
Twitter and other tech giants have previously used the legal immunities ostensibly granted to them by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to defeat similar lawsuits, a fact Berenson’s lawyers acknowledge in their complaint. They argue that their use of California’s common carrier law, and the apparent interaction between the Biden administration and Twitter, makes this lawsuit different from previous cases.
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.
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