Is the suspension of Twitter account of public authorities a threat to free speech?

[buritobr]

Some people say that the suspension is a kind of censorship promoted by big IT firms.
I disagree.
I think that it is necessary to suspend accounts if a public authority has millions of followers and uses Twitter to promote violence and misinformation about public health issues.

[Goldwater]

If you break the rules of a website, you get banned from that website. Public authorities shouldn't be above the rules.

[dw93]

Nope. Twitter is a private corporation, they have every right to ban people that violate their rules or do things on their site that don't reflect their views. The suspended party also has other channels, both online and offline (for better or worse), to express themselves and say what they want to say.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Depends on how and why it's done.  Twitter's stated rationale for banning Trump was laughable and included such tweets as Trump saying he won't be attending the inauguration. So it's clear they were looking for a pretext. Add to that the purging of many other accounts that is happening at the same time, without explanation, and I would say there is definitely a chilling effect.

[RGM2609]

What Trump has done using the platform is beyond any reasonable defense, but it is very dangerous to ban sitting Presidents and controversial politicians from social media platforms, especially as they grow in importance and will continue to do so. It is not as if we can trust those large companies to always act in the public interest, and this ban gives them a lot more power down the road. I am not exactly sure what they are trying to accomplish with this ban, other than annoy Trump to death, because in all seriousness, if he wants to tell his fanatic followers something, he will find a way to do so.

One aspect that is not mentioned enough in my view is how they muted the official account of the Presidency. I think this may be the worst part of this. Sure, Trump trying to tweet from it was just pathetic, but who do these companies think they are to try and silence such an important institution?

[OSR stands with Israel]

I mean technically no as it’s a private corporation but in principle you can make an argument it does .


Also it’s an extremely stupid business decision as now social media probably won’t have the same liability protections it didn’t before , you will have more anti trust lawsuit finds and more regulations put on in in general

[President Johnson]

It's always difficult for private companies to make such decisions, but free speech has limits. Threats of violence, racism, sexism, antisemitism and other direct or indirect calls for serious felonies is not free speech.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

This is also a legitimate worry:

https://twitter.com/navalny/status/1347970421161922560?s=20

[beaver2.0]

This is also a legitimate worry:

https://twitter.com/navalny/status/1347970421161922560?s=20

This is what I worry about.  Sure, Trump and many of the other people banned deserved it but the precedent of us cheering it on means tech companies probably feel they have backing enough to do this in the future.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

https://twitter.com/ModeledBehavior/status/1347970992136716289

This thread and some of its replies are some of the most compelling rebuttal to the arguments that this is an attack on free speech.

There are several other microblogging services which can be used and forcing Trump and his followers off Twitter may actually start to peel away some of Twitter's user share. The downside here of course is there are probably bad social externalities associated with having competing and somewhat-disjoint media ecosystems (see: Fox and RW Talk radio versus the rest of mass media), but in our current political/cultural/social moment it seems like a pretty natural outcome of any action that fragments (something approaching) a monopoly.

I don't think either outcome is ideal, but we're beyond the hypotheticals of what Trump can use his platforms to do. After Wednesday we have no clue where his boundaries lie (arguably this was always true) and he has a demonstrable incapacity to learn his lesson. I'm nervous about the deplatforming precedent (even on a private platform) but I'm also terrified of what Trump is able to weaponize out of his millions of devoted followers.

[Blair]

This is also a legitimate worry:

https://twitter.com/navalny/status/1347970421161922560?s=20

To be blunt I don't think whether or not Twitter did this makes a difference; the russian state did just try and kill him.

[Ferguson97]

No, breaking the terms of service of website is not a free speech issue.

Why should public figures be given special treatment?

[Red Velvet]

Problem is that people are just thinking this on the context of Trump and the emotional catharsis that it is to see him gone, not on the long-term effects.

They’re not thinking it opens a precedent for 5 millionaires to censor groups THEY consider to be extremists and dangerous.

These same people celebrating “OMG I love Twitter/big tech corporations now” will change their speech in a second if this is used as a precedent to repress organization for left-wing civil disobedience movements, such as Black Lives Matter.

This is something that ALREADY happens (see: censorship to pro-Palestinian movements) but now they will be able to do it much more frequently and casually. If not even president of US is untouched.

Twitter is doing this to protect themselves and be in good terms with the new power in the US now that democrats finally control the senate. If the political climate changes in the future against the left and there is this normalization of their power, it’s pretty much a given what they would do. Remember that the left that asks for universal healthcare and better education is often treated as “extremists” by the power oligarchies and put on the same basket as Nazis, white supremacists, fascists, etc.

It’s genuinely sad that private corporations, monopolies and oligarchs are being treated as the gatekeepers of free speech. Something got lost on the way when a considerable part of the left is cheering on those people. The far-right really traumatized them in a such a way that ANY savior that presents themselves is a great leadership.

But no matter how dire and bleak the situation is, there’s always room to fall deeper into the pit. You never really hit the rock bottom.

[(no subject)]

it is not censoring debate when the beauty of the internet means that you can put up your own website to express your views

[anthonyjg]

If it is a free speech issue for anyone (it is not) it’s for Twitter