Twitter filed a lawsuit Monday against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleging Paxton used his office to retaliate against the platform after it banned former President Donald Trump.
The lawsuit alleges Paxton used his authority as the attorney general to wrongfully demand Twitter hand over confidential information related to how it monitors content.
“Attorney General Paxton made clear that he will use the full weight of his office, including his expansive investigatory powers, to retaliate against Twitter for having made editorial decision with which he disagrees,” the suit reads. (RELATED: A Study Touted As A Blow To Conservatives’ Complaints About Big Tech Censorship Was Funded By A Major Biden Donor)
Following the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot, Twitter permanently banned Trump’s account, citing the risk of inciting violence.
Paxton then announced that he would be investigating Twitter and other social media platforms for what he alleged was a “coordinated de-platforming of the president.”
Paxton called for the companies to produce records related to how they moderate their content and what policies they have in place. Twitter said releasing the documents would harm its ability to moderate content. Specifically, the company said such a move would make the site susceptible to bad-actors who “design their content to carefully evade Twitter’s scrutiny, undermining the company’s ability to remove content that negatively affects the security and integrity of the platform and the health of the conversation on the platform.”
BOGOTA, COLOMBIA – MAY 14: Ken Paxton, Attorney General State of Texas attends the forum ‘Partnerships to Eradicate Human Trafficking in the Americas’ at the 2019 Concordia Americas Summit on May 14, 2019 in Bogota, Colombia.(Gabriel Aponte/Getty Images for Concordia Summit)
The suit also claims that Paxton has had his eye on Twitter since 2018 when he allegedly “expressed interest in using the powers of his office to address this supposed bias” against conservative users.
Twitter argues that claims of bias only got worse throughout the 2020 election cycle when the platform frequently flagged Trump’s tweets regarding mail-in voting as misinformation.
Paxton expressed his opinions in a post for Fox News that accused Twitter of being “fact checkers” with a political bias. Paxton also filed a comment with the Federal Communications Commission claiming Twitter unfairly censored conservatives.