US judge dismisses Trump's Twitter ban lawsuit

San Francisco, May 7

A judge has reportedly dismissed a lawsuit by former US President Donald Trump seeking to lift his ban from Twitter.

But, San Francisco federal district court Judge James Donato left the door open for Trump and other plaintiffs to file an amended complaint against Twitter that is consistent with his written decision to toss the lawsuit in its entirety, reports CNBC.

The micro-blogging platform had banned Trump on January 8, 2021, citing the risk of the incitement of further violence on the heels of the Capitol riot by a mob of supporters of the then-President two days earlier.

Trump, the American Conservative Union and five individuals had sued Twitter and its co-founder Jack Dorsey last year on behalf of themselves and a class of other platform users who had been booted from the app.

The ruling comes nearly two weeks after Trump told CNBC he had no interest in returning to Twitter even if his ban were to be lifted by Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO whose $44 billion offer to buy the site has been accepted by the company's board.

Before the ban, Trump was an avid Twitter user, tweeting an average of more than 30 posts per day toward the end of his presidency, the CNBC report said.

At the time of the ban, Trump had nearly 90 million followers on Twitter.