Facebook sued for ‘censoring’ posts naming the Trump whistle-blower

San Francisco: Facebook Inc. was accused in a lawsuit of censorship by a user who says the company hasn’t explained to him why it deleted three of his posts that named “the alleged Ukraine whistle-blower” who kicked off the presidential impeachment inquiry.

Connecticut law school student Cameron Atkinson says he wanted to test whether the social network was blocking posts that mentioned the identity ascribed to the whistle-blower by conservative media outlets. So he called the whistle-blower a “hero” in one post and a “dirty rat” in another — and said in a third post that he has “conflicting thoughts” about naming the person publicly. All three posts were removed within hours, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in federal court.

Congressional investigators have kept the whistle-blower’s name secret, voicing concerns about the person’s safety if it were made public.