Berenson

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

ALEX BERENSON, Plaintiff, No. C 21-09818 WHA

v.

TWITTER, INC., ORDER RE MOTION TO DISMISS Defendant.

15 16 INTRODUCTION In this free speech action, defendant banned plaintiff from its social media platform after he violated its five-strike COVID-19 misinformation policy. To the extent stated, defendant’s motion is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. STATEMENT Defendant Twitter, Inc. is a private company providing a social media platform that allows its users to post short messages for public discussion. Twitter’s terms of service stated at all relevant times that it could suspend user accounts for “any or no reason” (Compl. ¶¶ 15, 22–23, 133). Plaintiff Alex Berenson is an independent journalist. As alleged in the complaint, he gained notoriety through provocative statements he posted on Twitter regarding the public- discussion for prominent public…