Of Twitter Bans and Purges
Examining the risks of today’s social media crusades
In wake of January 6th’s riots in Washington DC, a number of social media outlets launched overnight campaigns to clean house.
Two days after the riots, President Donald Trump was suspended from at least 12 social media platforms across the web — and he was not alone.
Twitter and others have banned at least 7,000 QAnon-linked accounts and targeted an additional 150,000 for misconduct. Elsewhere, YouTube announced restrictions on channels that post misinformation about the 2020 election (following pressure from its parent company, Alphabet).
While many have raised concerns about freedom of speech, the recent social media purges do not necessarily constitute an encroachment on the First Amendment, as Virginia Commonwealth University constitutional law expert, Dr. John Aughenbaugh explains:
The First Amendment applies to the government, and Twitter or Facebook, or any other social media platform, by and large, is a private sector actor and therefore the First Amendment does not apply.
Not one to be silent, Donald Trump was quick (using his @Potus account) to announce his consideration of using other social media platforms, even if it meant starting his own alternative (this announcement…
