Twitter recently banned the former US president, Donald Trump, for using the platform to incite violence in the capital right before the US Electoral College Vote was about to announce the win of Joe Biden and declare him as president. The Twitter Chief, Jack Dorsey, has backed the ban of the president from the platform.
Although the Twitter chief was all in favour of the ban, he said that it sets a dangerous precedent on the platform. He further said, “Having to ban an account has real and significant ramifications. While there are clear and obvious exceptions, I feel a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation.”
Trump has used his Twitter account during his election campaign to make proclamations, accusations and to spread misinformation and the storming of the capital seems to have been the last straw as he might have continued to do so before Joe Biden’s inauguration as president.
An ACLU senior legislative counsel, Kate Ruane, said, “We understand the desire to permanently suspend him now but it should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions.” It seems that social media platforms need to define clear rules in the upcoming future on what sort of content can be posted on the platform to allow for freedom of speech but at the same time not let the platform be used to incite violence.
