Big Tech excommunicates President Trump — and Twitter bans him permanently
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Still reeling... The nation was shaken Wednesday, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol building, temporarily halting the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. Five people died during the attack, including a US Capitol Police officer. Trump was widely criticized for stoking the insurrection, which struck at the cornerstone of American democracy. While the riot received bipartisan condemnation, Big Tech took unprecedented action...
- Twitter went the furthest, permanently banning Trump and removing his tweet history. It cited the risk that he could incite further violence (against Twitter Rules).
- Facebook locked Trump's FB and Insta accounts at least until January 20th (aka: Biden's inauguration) — and potentially indefinitely.
- Google and Apple removed Parler, a right-wing-friendly “free speech” app, from their app stores. Then, Amazon said it would no longer host Parler on its AWS cloud.
- Shopify permanently took down Trump's campaign merch store, while Paypal deactivated an account that raised money for Trump supporters, some of whom traveled to the Capitol.
- Snap locked Trump's account, while Amazon's Twitch indefinitely banned Trump's streaming channel.
Wall Street's two cents ... Twitter stock fell 5% for the week, even though the moves are likely to win Big Tech goodwill with the newly Democrat-controlled government (Dems have criticized Twitter for not moderating enough). More goodwill = potentially less regulation and Congressional grillings. But Twitter investors seemed concerned that the Trump ban could reduce usage and ad sales.
The immense power and responsibility of Big Tech has never been clearer... First: in allowing misinformation to spread, bad actors to organize, and nearly anyone to have a huge platform. Second: in taking away that voice and reach in a matter of seconds, from a figure as significant as the US president. These tech bans are a reminder that a company like Twitter, with just 5K employees, wields disproportionate influence over world events. They also set a precedent for how the public will expect them to intervene moving forward.