World leaders are moving forward to detonate the suspension of Twitter from President Trump’s account, with many of them calling it total censorship and a decision that should be left to the citizens and not a private technology company.
French European Union Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said he was “shocked” to see the social media platform pull Trump’s account.
“It must be decided by the citizens, not by a CEO,” he told Bloomberg TV on Monday. “But yes, I am shocked that it is now, entirely in private hands. It cannot be just in private hands. “
Beaune said there should be a “public regulatory framework” in which social media platforms can argue that some content violates the law and that it should be removed or fines paid for, but that should be decided by citizens and legislatures.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the responsibility for regulating content should lie with the state.
“The regulation of digital giants cannot be made by the digital oligarchy itself,” said Le Maire, adding that big technology was “one of the threats” to democracy.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said it was a “bad sign” that social media had the power to censor Trump.
“I don’t like anyone being censored or taking the right to post a message on Twitter or Facebook. I don’t agree with that, I don’t accept it, ”said Lopez Obrador at a press conference last Friday.
“A censorship court like the Inquisition to manage public opinion: this is really serious,” he said.
A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she saw Trump’s ban on Twitter as “problematic”.
“This fundamental right may be subject to intervention, but according to the law and within the framework defined by legislators – not according to a decision by the administration of social media platforms,” spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin on Monday. -market.
“Seen from this angle, the chancellor considers it problematic that the US president’s accounts are now permanently blocked,” he said, adding that the president must be able to express his opinion.
Acting Australian Prime Minister Michael McCormack said blocking Trump is tantamount to censorship.
He questioned why Twitter was unable to remove a fake photograph showing an Australian soldier beheading an Afghan child, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
“I would say to the owners of Twitter, if you are going to cancel the comments of who is still the American president, you also need to think about the photo, the adulterated image, which shows a soldier, supposedly an Australian digger, with a child in his arms, about to harm that child, ”said McCormack. “This has not been removed, and this is wrong.”
Twitter marked the image as “sensitive”, following the Post’s suggestion in November.
Eduardo, son of the president Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil, raised similar concerns about the treatment by Twitter authoritarian leader of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.
“A world where Maduro is on social media, but Trump is suspended cannot be normal,” Bolsonaro said on Twitter.
He changed his Twitter profile picture to Trump.
Wired from posts