San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn passed his judgment on June 14 that there will be no lawsuit thrown out that’s filed against Twitter by Jared Taylor. The filing accuses the social media company of violating free speech rights of Taylor after it banned him from its platform in late 2017.
The judge did narrow down Taylor’s scope on the lawsuit but also did not dismiss the suit entirely, much to the dismay of Twitter who requested for the dismissal. According to Kahn, it is a ‘classic public interest lawsuit’ case impacting the free speech principles of USA’s constitution.
As a refresher, Twitter rushed on to take down racists in its platform in last December, and Taylor was one of the users caught. Twitter took down both the accounts, personal and publishing, of Taylor. These accounts were verified by Twitter with the traditional blue checkmark.
Taylor’s website American Renaissance is all about white advocacy, typically eyeing to establish a race that’s only based on skin color! Anti-Defamation League reports that Taylor generally published “pseudo-scientific studies that attempt to demonstrate the intellectual and cultural superiority of whites.”
One such example of Taylor’s posts, documented by Southern Poverty Law Center, is quite irritating as per social standards on equality: “Race realism, therefore, has no theory of religion, the family, art, or the role of government, except in the very general sense that it expects whites to love, first and foremost, the infinite riches created by European man.”
Taylor moved his operation of American Renaissance online entirely in 2012 and started spreading his so-called ideology. Twitter granted him with the blue checkmark, not just to confirm the account holder of an influence in the platform, but as well to provide legitimacy, as it does regarding all users.
Interestingly, when Twitter banned him, Taylor brought the lawsuit on the table in February that was represented by lawyer Marc Randazza who previously represented Andrew Anglin, founder of The Daily Stormer, neo-Nazi website!
It may be speech that you and I don’t wish to enjoy, but that’s not germane to the determination of whether it’s public interest. Public interest doesn’t have a flavor of ideology to it; public interest is whether it benefits the public. – Judge Kahn
Having said all, the judge wants the case moving forward, although in a limited manner. This means that Taylor can go ahead accusing Twitter on violation of Unfair Competition law of California, as it made misleading statements on its position regarding speech.
But then, isn’t public interest itself an ideology?
