Should politicians be exempt from the TOS of social media?

[Ferguson97]

Many have expressed concern over Trump's twitter ban because they believe social media outlets should not be able to ban politicians.

Do you believe that the rules should apply to politicians or should they be banned if they break the rules?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Social media bans are applied arbitrarily anyway including among politicians.

[It's Perro Sanxe wot won it]

Absolutely not. It shouldn’t be that hard to not engage in abusive behavior, incite violence, harass people etc., especially if you are an elected official.

[Former President tack50]

Unpopular opinion apparently, but yes.

They are a public authority figure, so it is in the public interest to have their tweets openly visible. Perhaps with a big disclaimer or comments locked, but they should be visible.

Trump could just have been banned on the 21st of January if necessary.

[HisGrace]

I'm undecided on this, but the thing is Twitter isn't applying their TOS to political figures. They haven't banned the Ayatollah or Russian and Chinese state media for spreading misinformation and making nasty personal attacks, just Trump. So the standard here is really unclear.

I also think some people miss the point on this debate. It's not about the leader having the right to post but the people having the right to see what the leader posts and evaluate him accordingly. Trump being banned from Twitter clearly reduced his transparency.

[Del Tachi]

Yes, and I'll go a step further and argue that an elected official's political speech should be allowed additional protections than the political speech of private individuals, even in a non-social media context  

[The Houstonian]

I think so. This would be a valuable perk to ensure that talented individuals would go into politics rather than the private sector

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Absolutely not. It shouldn’t be that hard to not engage in abusive behavior, incite violence, harass people etc., especially if you are an elected official.

You would think so, but clearly it is more difficult than first thought.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I lean towards yes for reasons of public transperancy especially.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

The fact that we even have to ask this question is sad. Our elected officials should be of high enough character that one of them doing something against the current terms of service of any social media platform would be unheard of.

But we all know that isn’t the case.

[Hammy]

If anything, elected officials should be held to higher standards than the average user given they hold actual sway over people's actions.