Former president Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he is suing Twitter, Facebook, Google, and their CEOs Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai, alleging that the social media juggernauts violated Trump’s First Amendment rights when they all banned him from their services. The 45th president has been barred from using Twitter, Facebook, and Google’s Youtube for months now after a mass of his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6th.

The suits against these tech giants are requesting that Trump be reinstated on all platforms. Currently, his only chance at returning to any of these sites lies with Facebook, which recently said Trump was banned until at least January 2023, although he may be allowed to return after that. 

The suits also demand that the court decide section 230 of the Communications Decency Act be ruled unconstitutional. Trump has long railed against section 230, which prohibits technology companies from being held liable by what users on their platforms post. 

“We’re not looking to settle,” Trump told reporters at a press conference in front of his gold club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “We don’t know what’s going to happen but we’re not looking to settle,”

Already there are many analysts saying the lawsuits will likely not be held up in a court of law. The claim that Trump’s First Amendment rights were violated will have a hard time passing muster with a judge because Facebook, Twitter, and Google are all private entities and not government institutions, therefore they are free to make choices related to speech that don’t violate constitutional rights. Still, it is one of Trump’s largest moves against Big Tech, a group he has been fighting since before leaving office. Following his ban from the platforms, Trump’s opinion on the companies only lowered and his drive against them increased. 

Immediately after announcing the lawsuits, Trump’s political action committees began sending out fundraising emails asking for money to help fund the lawsuits. 

Seven of the biggest technology companies in the world are urging the federal government to hold them accountable about climate change. 

Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google parent company Alphabet, and more sent a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler on Friday, asking that the SEC require businesses to regularly reveal issues related to climate change to shareholders and the public. 

The coalition’s letter stated that the companies “believe that climate disclosures are critical to ensure that companies follow through on stated climate commitments and to track collective progress towards addressing global warming and building a prosperous, resilient zero-carbon economy.” It marks one of the most high-profile attempts by big tech to spur more self-responsibility and involvement from their sector and follows other instances of the industry being vocal about the need to address climate change.

Perhaps the biggest request in the letter is regarding greenhouse gases. The companies claim that the SEC should require businesses to report on these gas emissions in an annual report that provides transparency to anyone involved in the company and any potential customers as well. 

Additionally, the group of businesses stated that they have purchased 21 gigawatts of clean energy in their quest for a fully renewable economy. 

The letter doesn’t come as a major surprise, since many major tech companies have long been adamant about fighting climate change. However, even the most vocal companies have been criticized for their lack of tangible action. Recently, some of these companies – such as Amazon – have put forth plans to show how serious they are about tackling the pressing issue. Jeff Bezos launched the “Climate Pledge” in September 2019, which included plans for Amazon to use 80% renewable energy by 2024 before transitioning to complete zero emissions by the year 2030. 

Months after an oversight board said that the same rules should apply to all its users, Facebook is set to end its controversial policy that has protected politicians from traditional moderation standards.

The oversight board that gave Facebook the advice to change their policy was created after the company banned former president Donald Trump in response to the Capitol insurrection in January 2021. The surprising ban upset many on the far right, with some calling it unfair treatment of a political figure expressing free speech. It has set off a firestorm of controversy, with some states even enacting new laws to punish social media companies that ban politicians.

The Trump ban was a major departure for Facebook, which had enacted a hands-off approach to politicians and their posts for years. The company had long insisted that political accounts shouldn’t be subjected to fact-checking like common user accounts. Mark Zuckerberg himself has repeatedly stated that Facebook should not be policing the speech of elected officials because such speech is already monitored and critiqued by the mass media and voters. Zuckerberg has claimed he didn’t want Facebook to interject itself into any political matters, even if politicians were spreading falsehoods.

That choice by Facebook has caused intense criticism, especially in the last year when mainstream lies about the presidential election of 2020 were spread across every form of social media. A year before the election, a group of Facebook employees asked that the decision to not moderate politicians’ accounts be overturned. Despite that plea, top brass at Facebook claimed that all speech from politicians will be treated as “newsworthy” content, even if it was full of misinformation. This change in policy that will be announced is a complete departure from that stance.

It remains to be seen how Facebook will crack down on politicians’ accounts now that they are altering their years-long stance. Any new rules created by the company will definitely be put into regular use during the midterm elections of 2022 and far beyond.