Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, is facing another lawsuit. This time it’s been issued by social media giant Twitter. The lawsuit requests the immediate cessation of Paxton’s investigation into Twitter’s banning policy.
A temporary restraining order has been sought against Ken Paxton. This would imply that neither Paxton nor his team can demand to be shown Twitter’s banning processes and the decisions leading up to the bans.
Ken Paxton’s Republican Connect
Paxton is a loyal follower of Trump and a known Republican sympathizer. The attorney general had started proceedings against Twitter after the platform had forcefully banned Donald Trump’s account. This was immediately after Trump had continued inciting his followers during the Capitol Riots.
Twitter released a statement saying that it moved the court because it believed Ken Paxton is misusing his power as a petty retaliation against the banning of Trump. This is a direct violation of the First Amendment.
Paxton was also one of the Republicans who had sought to legally overturn the recent election results. However, that was instantly shut down by the Supreme Court.
Ken Paxton is also one of the vocal Republicans to have vowed to stand against social media platforms and technology. This is also in line with the Republican ire at many of its sympathizers being banned from the platforms after the Capitol Riots.
Twitter is not the only one on Paxton’s radar, as five other tech companies have also faced the same demands from his office. He had been a part of the rally to have taken place just before the Capitol Riot, and was an active critic of the company’s banning of the former president after the event.
On January 13, Paxton had stated his beliefs saying that the simultaneous bans across all the platforms are nothing more than a sign of how stifling social media companies are.
This comes after Governor Greg Abbott had recently introduced legislation in Texas that aims to demolish the censorship that Republican views tend to face.
