The platform so essential to the election of Donald Trump in 2016 has decided to ban the account of the current President. Twitter released the following statement after the ban…
After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021
Twitter wasn’t the only social media platform to step up and fully censor the President. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg made the following statement announcing the PERMANENT ban of Trump from their platforms Facebook and Instagram.
“The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence.Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies. We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”
Alphabet, who owns Youtube is also reportedly flirting with a possible Trump ban. There are undoubtedly more bans coming, as “tech overlords” use the protest at Capitol Hill to justify the Conservative purge.
President Trump was not the only person affected by the purge. Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon also had his account removed from Youtube over claims of election fraud. Bannon was not involved in the Capitol Hill protest, neither does he currently work for the White House. His ban is a perfect example of what “Big Tech” is attempting to do.
Guilty by association.
Millions now stand on the brink of being silenced over the internet. It is essential that we understand where these people’s power comes from.
Early in the days of the internet, Congress created a legal protection for certain social media startups called “Section 230“. In this legal shield, platforms like Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter were afforded new protections as “platforms”. Meaning that they could not be sued for anything that occurred on their site. It was only fair. There was no way, at the time, for platforms to constantly regulate what went on in their cyberspace.
Now things have changed. Powerful algorithms control every word that enters the cyberspace. Companies actively seek out content that they disagree with, and purge it from their platforms. We are seeing this on the GRANDEST scale right now, with the ban of a sitting President off of most major platforms. Section 230 is afforded to these companies on the basis of being non-biased, open ended platforms. The legal protections allow them to save millions of dollars in legal fees. The protections allow them to grow in to monopolies. If ONLY true free speech platforms were only protected, there would actually BE an incentive to provide free speech.
However, Congress has allowed these companies to act as publishers, and be protected like platforms. This has caused a monopolistic marketplace of tyrants.
Congress must act NOW to remove Section 230, and end the digital war on free speech!
