A
Anonymous
Guest
"Twitter, Facebook and others had previously resisted cracking down on Mr. Trump’s posts and other toxic content, saying that the posts were in the public’s interest. While the platforms had started taking more steps against political misinformation in the months before the election, they declined to remove Mr. Trump’s messages and instead took half measures, such as labeling his posts.
So when violence broke out in Washington on Wednesday, it was, in the minds of longtime critics, the day the chickens came home to roost for the social media companies. After the onslaught of criticism began, Twitter and Facebook started removing several of Mr. Trump’s posts from their sites, including one where the president falsely said that “a sacred landslide election victory” had been “unceremoniously & viciously stripped away.”
“We know the social media companies have been lackadaisical at best” at stopping extremism from growing on their platforms, said Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League. “Freedom of expression is not the freedom to incite violence. That is not protected speech.”"
So when violence broke out in Washington on Wednesday, it was, in the minds of longtime critics, the day the chickens came home to roost for the social media companies. After the onslaught of criticism began, Twitter and Facebook started removing several of Mr. Trump’s posts from their sites, including one where the president falsely said that “a sacred landslide election victory” had been “unceremoniously & viciously stripped away.”
“We know the social media companies have been lackadaisical at best” at stopping extremism from growing on their platforms, said Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League. “Freedom of expression is not the freedom to incite violence. That is not protected speech.”"
Twitter and Facebook Lock Trump’s Accounts After Violence on Capitol Hill (Published 2021)
The moves came after critics and even some allies of the social media companies said they had failed to prevent the misinformation that led to chaos on Wednesday.
www.nytimes.com