Too little, too late: Social media platforms finally take a stand against Trump
This should have happened a long time ago.
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Social media companies like Twitter and Facebook have given Donald Trump’s social accounts special treatment due to the fact he is the President. Now, it seems that even social companies are sick of his shit.
While domestic terrorists stormed the US Capitol, the president continued to push out divisive tweets, falsely claiming election fraud. He then sent out a now-deleted video of him telling the terrorists that he “loved them” and that they were “very special,” but they should leave the US Capitol.
Those tweets have been deleted, and Trump received a 12-hour ban from the platform. Twitter then stated that further violations would result in a permanent ban for the @realDonaldTrump account.
Facebook, which has normally taken more of a backseat to Trump’s dangerous antics on the platform, declared an “emergency situation” and removed the same video mentioned above. His Instagram has also been locked for 24 hours.
While one can understand the need for politicians to have a bit more freedom on social platforms, Trump has been spewing dangerous lies on the platform for months, often using vague wording that helped inspired the riots yesterday. Any good grace he was allowed should have been taken away long ago.
Now, people are dead. Because of Donald Trump. An early Twitter investor, Chris Sacca, went as far as to say that Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg have “blood on [their] hands.”
UPDATE 1/8/2021 9:30 AM ET: More and more platforms are giving Donald Trump the boot. Shopify has taken the Trump Organization and campaign stores offline. Twitch disabled his account. And now TikTok is banning the video of Trump inciting the mob while also blocking hashtags related to his cause. Oh, and not to mention, Facebook and Instagram are restricting Trump’s account indefinitely.
UPDATE 1/11/2021 9:47 AM ET: The hits keep coming. Reddit has banned the subreddit group “r/DonaldTrump.” Twitter permanently banned him. Snapchat disabled Trump’s Snapchat account. Stripe will no longer process payments for President Trump’s campaign, which continued to fundraise.
UPDATE 1/13/2021 9:01 AM ET: YouTube has removed a new upload by the Donald Trump channel, as well as two videos from the official White House channel. The removal means that the Donald Trump channel has received a strike and will be unable to post new videos or live streams for seven days. Additionally, Snapchat is permanently banning his account on January 20 in the interest of public interest.
What do you think? Have social media companies been doing enough? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
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