Alexis Keenan July 8, 2021, 4:34 PM Former President Donald Trump launched a Hail Mary pass in three lawsuits on Wednesday that claim Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR), and YouTube (GOOG, GOOGL) violated the First Amendment by kicking him and others off their services. But legal experts say the effort won’t fly, largely because the First Amendment protects against censorship by the government and not censorship by private companies. “The First Amendment bars censorship by the state,” Northwestern University law professor, Andrew Koppelman, told Yahoo Finance. “Media platforms are not the state. They are private companies. Trump’s lawyers know this perfectly well. The lawsuit is a frivolous stunt whose only purpose is to attract attention.”