'Even more stupid than I expected': Experts pan Trump's 'dumb and frivolous' lawsuit against Facebook, Google, Twitter

Legal experts and other observers blasted president Donald Trump's class-action lawsuit — announced Wednesday — in which he alleges that Facebook, Google and Twitter violated his First Amendment rights by banning him from their platforms for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

First and foremost, many legal experts noted that the First Amendment applies to governmental actors.

Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University Law School in California, told the Washington Post that similar lawsuits have all failed in the past, adding that Trump is "playing a standard media game."

"It fits into a broader pattern of the former president bringing lawsuits and then not vigorously pursuing them," Goldman said. "There's no waya plaintiff has been able to get traction in the past, and there's no way that Trump is going to be able to get traction either."

Paul Barret, the deputy director of the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, added: "Trump has the First Amendment argument exactly wrong. In fact, Facebook and Twitter themselves have a First Amendment free speech right to determine what speech their platforms project and amplify — and that right includes excluding speakers who incite violence, as Trump did in connection with the January 6 Capitol insurrection."

More reactions from Twitter below.