Amid multiple suspensions from social media, President Trump has called his suspension by “Tech Giants” a “terrible mistake”.
Besides Twitter and Facebook’s permanent suspension of his accounts till after the Presidential inauguration on 20, January 2021, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Google Play have all unleashed a crusade on Trump by restricting Pro-Trump supporters from utilizing their apps to further their plan.
“It is something have been predicting for a long time. But I think Big Tech has made a terrible mistake.” President Trump said.
After the mob attack of pro-Trump protesters at the US Capitol last week Wednesday, Twitter suspended Donald Trump’s account in an unprecedented move to address misinformation and the incitement of violence posted by the president.
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube also took down a video in which President Trump addressed his supporters. The sites said the video, in which Trump seemingly sympathized with protesters and repeated false claims about the election, contributed to ongoing violence and violated misinformation policies. Twitter then went a step further and locked the president’s account.
Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitch suspended Donald Trump indefinitely after Twitter’s decision to permanently suspend his account for breaching their safety policy.
Some platforms removed his messages, while others such as Apple and Google restricted access to Parler, an alternative to Twitter popular among Trump supporters.
In the now-removed video, President Trump told his supporters: “I know your pain. I know you are hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us” — he continues to make these claims even after his own attorney general confirmed there was no evidence of such fraud and courts threw out all lawsuits.
This move has sparked outrage among supporters and critics split into partisan lines of freedom of speech in America.
But many communications experts believe that Trump’s ban is too little too late.