United States of America: Issued Ninth Circuit Ruling in lawsuit against Twitter over alleged First Amendment violation for speech censorship (O'Handley v Twitter)

On 10 March 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued ruling in the lawsuit O’Handley v. Twitter Inc. (No. 22-15071). In the case, the plaintiff had claimed that Twitter had collaborated with government officials by removing tweets flagged by the latter as including false or misleading information, thereby infringing constitutional rights. According to the ruling, the plaintiff’s claims of Twitter’s First Amendment violation for censoring his speech were lawfully dismissed by the district court. The Court thus upheld the district court's order, ruling that Twitter's content moderation decisions did not constitute government action and that the plaintiff had failed to prove that a private group conspired with the government to deny him his constitutional rights. The jury also affirmed the dismissal of plaintiffs' remaining claims under the California Constitution and affirmed that the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claim.