Emergency measures were taken by social media after pro-Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill in Washington. The mob was incited by Trump who vowed at a rally held earlier on to never concede defeat to Joe Biden.
As events developed Twitter, Facebook and Instagram locked Trump out of his accounts to stop misinformation and violence incitement. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also removed Donald Trump's video post to his supporters who stormed the Capitol.
Twitter locked Trump out of his account for 12 hours and requested him to delete three tweets violating the company's policies to unlock the account. Facebook first suspended Trump from posting to his account for 24 hours, but then Facebook and Instagram banned him indefinitely.
"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," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page.
Facebook will also remove content supporting or praising the rioters at the US capitol, together with videos and photos showing the shocking moments of the siege. YouTube will also temporarily suspend accounts that post lies and misinformation regarding the elections or the storming of the Capitol.
There were also other platforms that removed the president, namely Snapchat and Twitch, while re-commerce retail service Shopify treminated stores offering merchandise in support of Trump (including the sites Trumpstore.com, operated by the Trump Organization, and Shopdonaldjtrump.com, his official campaign merchandise).
Yet, as social media locked Trump's accounts and removed his posts casting doubts on the election results, the debate was rife about these companies having done too little and being too late. Throughout his presidency, Trump has indeed incited people, building a solid vocabulary of hate, racism and violence, working on a systematic propaganda and supporting and defending white supremacists while encouraging violence against Black Lives Matter protests.
Twitter may have flagged several Trump tweets sharing misinformation or calling for violence, some tweets were also hidden and prevented from being shared, and in the case of the latest tweets engagement was restricted to avoid people reply to, retweet, or like the message, but these removals weren't done quickly enough to prevent the messages from being retweeted.
Besides, social platforms weren't just his microphone, but became the means to spread violent ideas, organise events and actions. In the case of Facebook, the company started removing militias from its platform last August, but for years far-right groups and militia movements have been using the platform to recruit and organise anti-Democratic, armed actions.
While the actions taken by these platforms were welcomed by the majority of people, tech platforms have so far been reluctant to moderate Trump's posts and acting faster and earlier would have been an exemplary lesson for many (how many times did you stumble upon a racist, misogynist or fascist remark or group on Twitter or Facebook and reported them but then realised that no action was taken against them?).
Besides, while Facebook may have banned Trump, Twitter has given him back his account, and alternative social media are giving him and his supporters all the space they need. On Parler, the social networking endorsed by Donald Trump supporters, conservatives, conspiracy theorists and right-wing extremists, and Gab, it is stil possible to watch Trump's message to his supporters, that was banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
At the moment, while many are calling to remove Trump from power via the 25th Amendment, the focus remains on President-elect Biden's duties. He will have to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic (Thursday was the deadliest day in the US with more than 4,000 people dying from Covid-19), the economic divide and the crisis brought by the pandemic, unemployment, climate change and the rampant racism (that was exposed even more after the white supremacists stormed Capitol Hill more or less undisturbed). But he will also have to deal with the lies spread by Trump and bring back fact-based reasoning - key issues to reunite a country Trump has divided. Last but not least, Biden will have to focus on technology, social media and the way misinformation and violence travel and spread through them: regulations are needed to stop violent movements from organising, conspiracy theory groups like QAnon from flourishing and leaders from promoting hate speeches on the social media platforms.
So measures against Trump on social media are good but they are not enough: we can stop Coronavirus by taking a series of actions such as wearing face masks, washing our hands, keeping social distance and getting the vaccine, in the same way banning Trump is just one piece of the action, that should be accompanied by educating and informing people. Only in this way it will be possible to silence conspiracy theorists, liars and the "crazy uncle" - as NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie called Donald Trump last year (remember her interview in which she mentioned Trump retweeting a conspiracy theory alleging that Osama bin Laden is still alive and that Joe Biden and Barack Obama "may have had Seal Team 6 killed", and Guthrie told him "You're not, like, someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever") - that has been in the White House for the last four years.
Comments