Leer en Español
El American Chief Correspondent Anna Paulina Luna filed a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to urge it to take action against Twitter over the social media’s “unfair” treatment of her as a candidate during the 2020 election cycle.
Luna argues that her opponent, Democrat Charlie Crist, received privileged treatment from Twitter during the electoral campaign by granting the “verified account checkmark” to the candidate.
Given this situation, Luna is planning legal action against the social network for allegedly violating the Federal Election Campaign Act.
“The Federal Election Commission should rule and make it clear that Twitter and other big tech platforms cannot use their platforms, their algorithms, and shadow-banning, to suppress the voices of federal candidates,” Luna said in a statement sent to El American.
“The FEC’s failure to act fosters a culture of cancellation by allowing companies in general, but especially Big Tech like Twitter to influence elections by selectively providing benefits to certain candidates and not others.”
“Big-Tech companies like Twitter skirt these campaign finance laws to actively help Democratic candidates get elected by giving them valuable benefits that increase visibility on their platforms.”
Luna is hoping the lawsuit will create precedents for tech platforms to treat political candidates fairly; she wants to prevent further censorship, account suspensions, among other measures.
“Along the way, it could create opportunities that publicly demonstrate the process of how the company (Twitter) and the industry suppress conservative voices they disagree with,” she added.
“We can stand up to them”
“The fact is that Twitter and Big Tech are betting that we don’t care enough about what’s going on to do anything about it. They’re betting that they’re too big and powerful for us to take them on now. But guess what, we can take them on and that’s how we’re doing it,” he said.
Luna had already filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Twitter on October 26, 2020 stating why Twitter’s refusal to provide services to her during her campaign violates the Federal Election Campaign Act. To date, the FEC has not made a decision on the matter.
In the event that the FEC dismisses the complaint, Luna may also appeal the dismissal decision and go directly to the District Court for the District of Columbia.
In addition to her complaint, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has filed a complaint with the FEC alleging that Twitter’s ban on sharing key Hunter Biden stories (such as the New York Post story that was censored by Twitter) was part of illegal in-kind corporate contributions to favor Joe Biden’s campaign.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo