New Trump legal filing acknowledges Twitter's popularity after he said it was 'boring' and 'hated by everyone'

• Trump's lawyers acknowledged Twitter's popularity while arguing for his reinstatement on the site.
• They said Twitter's competitors don't have the "market penetration" the social media giant does.

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump in a court filing this week acknowledged Twitter's popularity and reach, saying that while there are other social-media platforms he can use, "the few available alternatives lack the Defendants' market penetration."

The acknowledgment in Tuesday's filing stands in sharp contrast to Trump's repeated claims that Twitter is unpopular.

"Everybody should drop off Twitter and Facebook," he said in a statement last week after Twitter banned an account belonging to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. He added that Facebook and Twitter were "boring" and "hated by everyone."

Trump's lawyers alleged in their filing Tuesday that Twitter "damaged the integrity" of the election process by barring Trump and asked a court to force the social media giant to reinstate Trump's account. They went on to claim that his 2021 ban in the wake of the deadly Capitol riot hurt the "free and open exchange of ideas that underpin our democracy."

"Mr. Trump's injuries are not only ongoing, but worsening, because they flow from the silencing of Mr. Trump's political speech as the presumptive head of the Republican party at a time when the nation is drawing ever-closer to the 2022 elections, including his endorsement of candidates in primary races that are currently commencing throughout the nation," Trump's lawyers wrote in the filing.

Twitter permanently barred Trump from its platform on January 8, 2021, two days after thousands of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in a failed effort to stop Congress from certifying then-President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election. At least seven people died in connection to the attack, a bipartisan Senate report said.

Twitter cited the "risk of further incitement of violence" for its decision to ban Trump. Other social-media companies, including Facebook and Instagram, followed suit.

Trump initially filed his lawsuit against Twitter in October. Twitter subsequently asked a court to transfer the case from the Southern District of Florida, where it was filed, to the Northern District of California pursuant to a clause in the company's user agreement that all users sign. But Trump's legal team pushed back, saying that his status as a former president exempted him from that clause and that jurisdiction should not be changed.

A federal judge granted Twitter's request and rejected Trump's legal argument, writing: "The Court finds that Trump's status as President of the United States does not exclude him from the requirements of the forum selection clause in Twitter's Terms of Service. The Plaintiffs have failed to satisfy their heavy burden to show that this case should not be transferred."

In December, Twitter asked a court to dismiss Trump's lawsuit, saying that it misinterpreted the Constitution's free-speech protections.

The company said in its filing that it was "a private actor that is not constrained by the federal constitution" and, as such, the government "cannot force the private operator of an online platform, such as Twitter, to disseminate speech with which the operator disagrees."

It added that Trump "agreed to abide by Twitter's rules, and yet proceeded to repeatedly violate those rules."

A spokesperson for Twitter declined to comment on the filing.