The Silicon Valley moves to expel President Trump from social media represent a show of power that companies have been avoiding for almost four years. Now Twitter Inc., Facebook Inc. and others must consider what comes next.
Within days, Twitter and Facebook – Mr. Trump’s top social media megaphones – acted to silence the president’s personal accounts or the online communities dedicated to him, citing rules that prohibit content that incites violence. They joined companies like Snap Inc. and Reddit Inc.
Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google also took steps to launch Parler, a social media application and website that has grown in popularity among conservatives – and which some protesters used to promote the attack. Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, according to images seen by The Wall Street Journal.
The actions against Trump and Parler illustrate more clearly than ever before the influence of companies in online conversations – and the political nature of their decisions. While praised by many, expelling the president and some of his supporters also angered others who said that this amounts to censorship, and the measures risked alienating some users in a way that, especially for Twitter, could reshape their businesses. It also illustrates the political nature of how they determine which content to remove, which content to allow and what to expand.
“Right or wrong, they made a political decision,” said Jonathon Hauenschild, director of the communications and technology task force at the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative, nonprofit group, about the company’s actions. Attention to the tech giants “was there to start. Now the focus is fully on, ”he said.