On Twitter, on Wednesday, users asked the company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, to close President Trump’s account. Civil rights groups said actions by social media companies against calls for political violence were “long overdue”. Even venture capitalists who had made wealth by investing in social media urged Twitter and Facebook to do more.
“For four years you have been rationalizing this terror. Inciting violent treason is not free speech, ”wrote Chris Sacca, a technology investor who invested in Twitter, to Mr. Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “If you work in these companies, it’s up to you too. Shut it down.”
Twitter, Facebook and others had previously refused to crack down on Mr Trump’s posts and other toxic content, stating that the posts were in the public interest. While the platforms had taken more steps against political misinformation in the months leading up to the election, the platforms refused to remove Mr Trump’s messages and instead took half-measures, such as labeling his posts.
When violence broke out in Washington on Wednesday, longtime critics said it was the day the chickens came home to settle down for the social media companies. After the onslaught of criticism began, Twitter and Facebook removed several of Mr. Trump’s posts from their websites, including one in which the president falsely stated that “a holy landslide election victory” was “unceremoniously and viciously stripped.”
The transition of the president
Updated
Jan. 7, 2021, 3:41 p.m. ET
“We know the social media companies have been laconic at best,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League, to keep extremism from growing on their platforms. “Freedom of expression is not the freedom to incite violence. This is not a protected language. “
Renee DiResta, a researcher at Stanford Internet Observatory who studies online movements, added that the violence was the result of people engaging in closed social networks who believed the allegations of electoral fraud and election of Mr. Trump were stolen.
“This is a demonstration of the very real effects of echo chambers,” she said. “This was a remarkable rejection of the idea that there is an online and an offline world and that what is said online is in some way kept online. I hope this removes the notion from people’s minds. “
