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A California judge has ruled that Twitter's policy of banning users "at any time, for any reason or for no reason" may constitute an "unconscionable contract", and that a lawsuit against the company brought by self-described "white advocate" Jared Taylor may proceed on that basis.Further reading:
The judge rejected Twitter's motion to dismiss the lawsuit from Taylor, who was banned by the platform in December last year.
In particular, Twitter's argument that it has a first amendment right to ban whoever it likes from its platform, for whatever reason was rejected.
The judge ruled that Twitter's belief that it had a right to ban users "at any time, for any reason, or no reason" could be a legally unconscionable policy on the company's part.
The judge also ruled that Twitter could be sued on the basis of misleading its users, due to the platform's promise - frequently expressed, frequently violated - not to ban accounts on the basis of viewpoint or political affiliation.
"This ruling has massive implications for the platform going forward," said Noah Peters, Jared Taylor's lawyer. "this is the first time that a social media company's argument that it can censor user speech has been rejected by a court."
Comment: Update August 19: German prosecutors say they are taking Ashwaq's claim seriously, but need more precise information to identify the man. When they attempted to follow up she had already left the country and is now at a refugee camp in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Frauke Koehler, spokeswoman for federal prosecutors, said, "if we get any further information to firm this up, we will pursue this, but to do so, Hami would need to return to Germany. Our powers end at the German border."