Yes, We Should All Be Talking About Free Speech
The recent platform bans on Trump and his allies show us that times have changed dramatically, and we need to modernize our discussion about freedom of speech.
On Thursday January 7th, just one day after the attacks on the Capitol, Facebook announced that it was banning Trump’s page for at least two weeks. A day later, after much pressure, Twitter permanently banned Trump’s account. Other companies have followed the trend since. Apple and Google removed Parler, a micro-blogging service heavily used by Trump supporters, from their app stores; Amazon recently canceled its hosting services to Parler; YouTube banned Steve Bannon’s channel; Reddit banned the main Trump subreddit; Discord banned a Trump-centric server; Shopify stopped processing payments for Trump’s campaign and personal brand stores; and Twitter also banned Trump’s campaign account, his campaign manager’s account, and other right-wing figures. You can see a list of where the president has been banned here, and a list of other prominent people that have been banned here.
It is undeniable that many of these actions were inspired by each other. It is unlikely that Twitter would’ve permanently banned Trump’s account had Facebook not banned it for two weeks the day before…
