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Originally Posted by JohnnyB
I think it's pretty reasonable to think Trump deserved to be deplatformed, be glad that it has happened, and yet still be uncomfortable about how it has happened.
Merkel seems to be uncomfortable with it too, even as the leader of a country with very strong interest in curtailing hate speech. This is from her spokesperson:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...ht/ar-BB1cEQZa
Personally, I have been really looking forward to the day that Trump's platform was closed down, but I'm not comfortable with how it has happened either. I wish it had been something arrived at through a legal process by democratically elected representatives rather than private corporate management.
Big tech companies own the infrastructure of our intellectual world. Engagement in society depends upon access to that infrastructure. That is tremendous power to wield privately, and seeing it successfully exercised in deplatforming a head of state who is still legally in office is a bit of a disturbing demonstration of the extent of that power. Should that type of power rest in private hands?
Would it be okay for private companies to own all our roads and pathways with the power to make private decisions to stop people using them without a judicial process? If it is, would we consider being allowed to go where you want as long as it's only cross country on public lands a reasonable standard of freedom of mobility?
It seems obvious to me that Trump being silenced and removed is good for society, but these dramatic, cross-platform bans without judicial processes or involvement of elected representatives doesn't feel like rule of law either. |
Even believing that the election was rigged, etc, Trump could have easily stayed on all these platforms while rattling off his lies. Maybe this is a wakeup call that you don't get to lie to people to the point that it causes chaos and death, for profit. It's not like he wasn't given warning, and it's not like they didn't give him WAY too many chances. Regular people get banned from twitter everyday for FAR FAR less.
If Trump went live on NBC to address the nation and began swearing up a storm, he would be removed.
If someone went on twitter going crazy with white power rants, etc, they would be removed.
If someone went on Grindr and went off with a homophobic rants they would be removed.
If someone goes on instagram and posts even a semi nude photo, the photo gets removed.
The list goes on.
You don't get to do whatever you want, whenever you want, anywhere in society, it's not just social media. This isn't a situation, where he was banned out of nowhere for nothing. Trump still has a ton of outlets, and ways to get his message out, and he needs to act accordingly. Getting people hurt is unacceptable, and certainly with this situation, putting the country in such a dangerous spot is unacceptable. This could have EASILY been way worse.