RTFri, 03 May 2019 08:09 UTC
© Reuters/ Clodagh Kilcoyne
President Donald Trump has condemned social media censorship in the wake of Facebook's lifetime ban on several prominent conservative commentators, warning the platforms he is "monitoring and watching" them.
"I am continuing to monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms," Trump tweeted on Friday, putting Facebook and other sites on notice. "This is the United States of America - and we have what's known as FREEDOM OF SPEECH!"
Trump's warning echoed the words of his son Donald Trump Jr., who called on conservatives to "fight back" against Big Tech's "next level" censorship, in a tweet posted earlier on Friday.
The president specifically mentioned Hollywood star James Woods and Infowars' Paul Joseph Watson as two "Conservative thinkers" he was "surprised" to see banned from social media platforms. While Woods' Twitter page has not been removed, his last tweet was posted over a week ago and many, including his girlfriend, have speculated that he has been banned.
He also called out Facebook for how "horribly" it had treated black conservative commentator sisters Diamond & Silk, who saw engagement on their page drop off steeply after their content was labeled "unsafe to the community" by Facebook employees.
Trump's supporters applauded the president for finally standing up for them.
and suggested he go on the offensive.
Others seemed to think it was too little, too late.
The #Resistance pointed out that the First Amendment doesn't apply to corporations,
and called the commander-in-chief out as a hypocrite,
telling him to focus on the country's "real" problems.
President Trump met with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last week to discuss social media censorship of conservatives.
Facebook banned Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer, and a handful of other popular conservative figures - plus Louis Farrakhan - on Thursday, citing its policy on "dangerous individuals and organizations." The platform announced it will remove even groups and events promoting content from the banned users.
Comment: Comment: RT provides more coverage on Facebook's censorship:
Some are calling for Facebook to be
regulated as a polticial or media entity: are calling for Facebook to be regulated as a media
Facebook needs to be regulated as a "political actor" because of its censorship practices, Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of think tank 'The Bow Group' told RT, accusing the Silicon Valley giant of curtailing free speech.
"If Facebook wants to be a political actor, then it needs to be regulated as a political actor or regulated at the same level as all other media outlets," Harris-Quinney said, stressing that the social media behemoth is "clearly putting itself on one side of the political debate."
Facebook banned Infowars, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and other prominent conservative voices such as Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan from the social network, citing the firm's policies on "hate organizations."
"This is an absolute curtailment of the free speech because they're saying these individuals are dangerous. Well, many people, as myself, see them as perfectly reasonable actors in a political debate," said the chairman of the independent, UK-based think tank, which champions conservative opinions.
Trump Jr weighs in saying the
censorship is only going to get worse:
Donald Trump Jr. has lashed out at what he called the "purposeful and calculated" silencing of conservative voices on social media, following the latest Facebook ban against Alex Jones and other right-wing commentators.
Tweeting about the platform's controversial move to ban Jones and other popular figures, including Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer and Louis Farrakhan, Trump Jr. said the censorship should "terrify everyone."
He said the latest step, which has been Facebook's most severe measure yet against the likes of Jones and others, showed that they were taking their "censorship campaign" to the next level. "Ask yourself, how long before they come to purge you? We must fight back," he wrote.
Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have been taking heat from conservatives for months over what they claim is a coordinated effort to silence them by slapping them with unwarranted suspensions and bans. Twitter has also been accused of 'shadowbanning' prominent Republican figures.
President Donald Trump himself has even weighed in on the controversy, accusing social media companies of discrimination against conservatives - an accusation which led to a surprise Oval Office meeting with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last week.
'Nothing to do with hate speech': Gavin McIness slams 'un-American' Facebook censorship
Facebook's recent crackdown on right-wing figures is "un-American," and "has nothing to do with hate speech," Vice Media co-founder and Proud Boys leader Gavin McInnes told RT.
The social media giant purged a raft of accounts from its own platform and from Instagram on Thursday, calling them "extremists" and "dangerous." For three of the accounts, InfoWars' Alex Jones, gay conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and activist Laura Loomer, their association with McInnes was used as evidence for the ban.
"They make you into a supervillain and you go 'wait, that's not me!' and they cut you off...because they can't win," McInnes told RT. "Anyone with a dissenting opinion from the mainstream media has to be silenced."
Facebook's purge did not affect some of the most prominent fake news merchants: The mainstream media, he said. "The mainstream media has pushed the Brett Kavanaugh serial rapist lie, they've pushed the Covington High School kids, the Russia conspiracy thing...the mainstream media has done way more fake news than us, but we are being censored," McInnes added.
Trump
retweets some of the censored content by the banned users:
Trump defends Facebook banned 'extremists,' attacks 'radical left-wing' media
How was your morning? President Donald Trump started his day by retweeting a barrage of content from Paul Joseph Watson - banned from Facebook for alleged "extremist" content, and slating the "radical left wing media."
Trump kept up the Twitter offensive on Saturday, tweeting an InfoWars clip featuring black Trump supporters declaring their love and support for the president. As well as banning InfoWars and its host Alex Jones, Facebook announced on Thursday it would ban users posting InfoWars content.
The president went on to retweet content from InfoWars' Paul Joseph Watson - a conservative vlogger who rails against political correctness and vehemently denies the "extremist" label.
© Twitter / realDonaldTrump
Trump finished off his Saturday tweetstorm with a post of his own, wondering why the "Radical Left" New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC are "allowed to be on Twitter and Facebook" after pushing the "Russia Collusion Delusion" story for two years.
Some proponents of Facebook's recent purge have argued that as a private company, Facebook can ban whoever it wants from using its services. The ensuing argument has centered around whether Facebook is defined as a 'publisher' or a 'platform,' with different legal protections afforded to speech depending on the definition.
A platform exists to facilitate speech, and is not responsible for the content posted. A publisher curates and distributes content, and is therefore responsible. Facebook has always presented itself as a platform, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress last year that his company is 'responsible for the content" posted, a step towards the 'publisher' role.
Trump appeared to side with the 'platform' argument on Saturday, retweeting a post from Daily Wire co-founder Jeremy Boreing, in which Boreing suggests that as a platform, Facebook can't simply "ban anyone for any reason."
© Twitter/realDonaldTrump
Liberals are shamelessly cheering on the totalitarian tip toe towards total censorship, meanwhile Conservatives are becoming proponents for the idea that private businesses should have social obligations:
Liberal Twitter in free speech conundrum after Facebook bans Jones, Yiannopoulos and Farrakhan
Liberals seem to be torn between applauding Facebook's censorship of "wrongthink" users and sticking up for free speech, a principle the Left once championed unconditionally.
After Facebook and Instagram announced they were not only banning controversial figures like Jones, Yiannopoulos and Farrakhan, but also anyone who reposted content from Jones' Infowars and removing any groups or events that promoted any of the blacklisted "extremists," citing the platform's policy on "Dangerous Individuals and Organizations," Twitter erupted in...applause?
Facebook claims the blacklisted users violated its policy on "Dangerous Individuals and Organizations," which covers "terrorist activity, organized hate, mass or serial murder, human trafficking, and organized violence or criminal activity" and says its policies have not changed. Some on Twitter actually claimed the censorship hadn't gone far enough, calling for Twitter to follow Facebook's lead and even suggesting more names for the blacklist.
Others warned that the bans wouldn't stop with easy targets like Jones and Laura Loomer, a lesson we should have learned the last time Facebook engaged in mass ideological deplatforming in 2018.
The "but it's a private company" argument was dutifully trotted out.
...and shot down by conservatives, for a change.
"There is no First Amendment protection, because they are not the government, but absent legislation, absent something that is created by the courts or by the legislature or congress, I submit that one day we should treat these platforms as utilities," legal analyst Lionel told RT, weighing in on the controversy. "It's their terms of service, and we need legislation and courts to intervene."
Much was made of the media's categorization of Farrakhan as "far-right," as if that would make the banning morally acceptable, with some sarcastically weighing in to congratulate Facebook on its weaponization of Farrakhan to silence criticism from the right.
And as some activists found out, even talking about the ban on Facebook leads to a Big-Brotheresque "the people who manage this Page will review your post."
Facebook has banned Alex Jones from its platform before, an unprecedented move when it happened last year that was followed with a wave of deplatformings that included several popular progressive pages. Those who refuse to learn from history are, apparently, condemned to repeat it.
More on the encroaching
'Digital gulag' from both supporters and objectors:
Jeers and cheers after Facebook purge of Alex Jones, Infowars, Farrakhan & others
Bans of several anti-establishment figures on Facebook and Instagram has conservatives and moderates crying censorship and calling the measure "Orwellian" and a "digital gulag," while left-wing activists demanded more, and faster.
Facebook announced on Thursday it was banning the accounts of InfoWars, Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson, Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer, Paul Nehlen, and Louis Farrakhan, calling them "extremists" and "dangerous." The ban applies to Facebook and Instagram, also owned by the Menlo Park-based company.
Anyone who shares any Infowars content on Facebook platforms is facing a potential ban as well, the company said.
Watson, an editor at Infowars, confirmed he had been banned, and said he was not given a reason, nor had he broken any rules.
"In an authoritarian society controlled by a handful of Silicon Valley giants, all dissent must be purged," he tweeted. "They're now just banning people for wrongthink. There's no pretense of enforcing rules. If you challenge them, you're gone."
Reacting to the ban, Loomer told a reporter that she lived in a "digital gulag." Pointing out that she's a Zionist, Loomer also objected to being purged by "Nazis in Silicon Valley" on Holocaust Remembrance Day and lumped in with Farrakhan and Nehlen, whom she described as "vile Jew haters."
"It's disgusting. But I don't expect anything else from these people who want me dead," Loomer said, adding that she would rather kill herself than "let them take the victory lap."
Almost everyone banned on Thursday had backed Trump to some extent since 2016, with the notable exception of Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader and prominent Black nationalist. His inclusion in the ban, along with mainstream media outlets labeling him "right wing," has raised more than a few eyebrows.
Comment: Comment: RT provides more coverage on Facebook's censorship:
Some are calling for Facebook to be regulated as a polticial or media entity: are calling for Facebook to be regulated as a media Trump Jr weighs in saying the censorship is only going to get worse: Trump retweets some of the censored content by the banned users: Liberals are shamelessly cheering on the totalitarian tip toe towards total censorship, meanwhile Conservatives are becoming proponents for the idea that private businesses should have social obligations: More on the encroaching 'Digital gulag' from both supporters and objectors: