A federal appeals court on Wednesday found in favor of technology companies Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Google, a division of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG), dismissing a suit that alleged the companies had engaged in a far-reaching conspiracy to suppress conservative viewpoints on their respective online platforms. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling, dismissing a lawsuit brought by far-right YouTube provocateur Laura Loomer and Freedom Watch, an organization founded by conspiracy theorist and serial lawsuit-filer Larry Klayman, who accused the four tech titans of conspiring to violate their free speech rights and breaking antitrust laws. The lawsuit was filed after Facebook and Twitter banned Loomer for espousing anti-Muslim views and violating the platforms' rules against hate speech and bullying. Image source: Getty Images. The three-judge panel unanimously and soundly rejected the plaintiffs' claims. The court found that the complaint did not provide sufficient evidence that antitrust laws had been violated. The court also noted that the First Amendment shields citizens from most governmental interference with free speech, but that those protections do not apply to decisions made by companies in the private sector. "Freedom Watch's First Amendment claim fails because it does not adequately allege that the Platforms can violate the First Amendment. In general, the First Amendment 'prohibits only governmental abridgment of speech,'" the court wrote, citing a previous opinion issued by the D.C. Court of Appeals. The judges went on to say that "'a private entity who provides a forum for speech is not transformed by that fact alone into a state actor.'" More importantly, the court found that there was simply no evidence to support the allegations that the technology platforms conspired with each other. The court's decision came on a day when President Trump launched a barrage of attacks against Twitter, threatening to shut down or strongly regulate social media after Twitter applied a fact-check label to several of his tweets. Twitter has begun using such labels in an effort to push back against the use of its platform to spread misinformation. 10 stocks we like better than AppleWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Apple wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of April 16, 2020 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Danny Vena owns shares of Alphabet (A shares), Apple, and Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Apple, Facebook, and Twitter. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source