Parler CEO George Farmer: Trump lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter, Google will ‘redefine’ free speech
Trump leading Big Tech lawsuit alleging 'censorship'
Parler CEO George Farmer argues former President Trump’s lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter and Google over censorship will transform free speech on social platforms.
Former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit targeting Google, Twitter and Facebook will transform tech platforms, according to Parler CEO George Farmer.
"I think this is the lawsuit that will redefine what free speech, when it comes to tech platforms, looks like," Farmer told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
The former president announced Wednesday that he will lead a lawsuit over alleged censorship against Twitter, Facebook and Google – three tech companies that removed him from their platforms after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
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The lawsuit will be a class-action, with Trump as the lead plaintiff, claiming that he's been censored by the companies which violates the Section 230 liability protection.
"We've seen many times the authoritarian arm of Big Tech come down and censor people unwarranted," Farmer pointed out. "It's great that somebody is fighting back."
Parler, a free-speech social media platform popular to conservatives, was removed on app stores by Apple, Google and Amazon after the tech giants claimed Parler failed to remove extremist and violent content.
The company made similar moves to Trump by filing an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, claiming the shutdown was politically motivated.
Farmer believes that Trump’s lawsuit brings more awareness to how Big Tech censors free speech.
"This lawsuit... is going to be very, very transformative when it comes to how much Big Tech can censor people nowadays," Farmer said. "This is the kind of lawsuit that we've all been waiting for."
Parler CEO George Farmer discusses the lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump targeting Facebook, Twitter, and Google over censorship.
The CEO went on to say that Parler would welcome the former president to its platform with "open arms."
"We've been talking about it with him for a while," Farmer admitted. "Getting him on board, getting him to come to Parler would be a great win for us, and we would love to see him on board."
Twitter, YouTube and Facebook each barred Trump over his claims that the presidential election was stolen, alleging that he contributed to the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6. YouTube is owned by Google.
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Farmer claimed that this provides an opportunity for Parler to grow and attract Trump’s audience to its platform.
"The more that other tech companies censor the general population, the more people come to us because they want a platform for free speech," Farmer said. "The higher our user base is, the more engagement there is to the platform, the more content creation there is."
President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Friday aimed at cracking down on Big Tech.
In the outline, the president argues that the biggest platforms "have depended on the accumulation of extraordinarily amounts of sensitive personal information and related data."
Biden’s order comes just a few weeks after the House Judiciary Committee passed six antitrust bills that could break up some of Silicon Valley's most powerful companies.
"It's a funny thing, really, isn't it?" Farmer said. "You saw Big Tech censor and control and try to de-platform the leader of the Republican Party who was the sitting president. They clearly allied themselves with one side of the aisle in Washington. How long was that allegiance going to last, really?"
Fox News' Tyler Olson and Talia Kaplan contributed to this report.