Facebook and Instagram are censoring President Trump by banning him from both social media sites. Facebook and Instagram are among the left-leaning Big Tech companies that continue to suppress the free flow of conservative, pro-Trump ideals. Should these companies have the right to use their power to rob President Trump of his First Amendment rights?
That is the complaint from many Trump supporters. They are outraged that these tech companies, run by liberal-minded individuals, are banning the President from using their platforms. But are Facebook and Instagram guilty of infringing on President Trump’s right to free speech?
Facebook and Instagram have banned President Trump’s access to their social media sites indefinitely. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained in a statement yesterday: “The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor.” Zuckerberg’s statement continued, “His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the U.S. and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect - and likely their intent - would be to provoke further violence.”
Republican Senator Marsha Blackurn (TN) accused Big Tech of “choosing winners and losers” with their ability to ban speech from social media platforms. Senator Blackburn made the charges against Big Tech during an interview on the right-leaning broadcasting company, Sinclair’s “America This Week,” the senator said, “What they have done is to start choosing winners and losers being very subjective in how they go about censoring.”
With zero proof of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 election, President Trump has continued to spread the false information that he won the election by a landslide and that “everyone knows that.”
Many believe that Trump’s insistence that the election was stolen from him and his supporters led to the chaos at the Capitol Building when the President urged the crowd at a rally to march to the Capitol and confront those politicians - Republicans and Democrats - that continue to challenge his claim that he won the election. Mark Zuckerberg was also concerned about President Trump telling the rioters that he loved them and referred to them as patriots.
The build-up to the Trump supporters invading and damaging the Capitol on Wednesday included a general call-to-action from President Trump and his supporters. There is little doubt that Trump and many of his supporters used social media to incite a mindset that led to the riots.
One of the problems with social media is that people can post anything they want without being accountable for the truth - including President Trump. The users of social media, like Facebook and Instagram, have come to perceive the written word on social media with the same respect of the written word in newspapers and other forms of print media.
But the difference is that those who write for print media and credible websites are accountable to an editor and editorial guidelines. The same for people who deliver the news through television. Social media is accessible to anyone, and the freedom to promote lies and misinformation for the purpose of supporting a political or social agenda goes unchecked.
Why should the mainstream media be held accountable to the truth while social media platforms escape the scrutiny?
Print media and electronic media make mistakes; but with credible media outlets, those mistakes are discovered and corrected. Those creating content for social media sites are not under the same pressure to be accurate.
The media that is regulated by the FCC is broadcast media since it has been established that the airwaves are owned by the public. Radio and TV broadcasting stations are held accountable to certain standards. There is total freedom to express opinions on broadcast media, but purposely misleading the public with false information could lead to restrictions.
Unlike broadcast media, the cable news networks do not use what is considered the public airwaves therefore they are under less restriction.
We live in a time when there are various media platforms, and the idea of holding all of them accountable should be accepted universally. The freedom to express opposing opinions is different from using any media outlet to consciously mislead the public with false information.
Criticism of Facebook and Instagram for banning President Trump is part of the world of confirmation bias, which is people searching for news that confirms their bias rather than a search for the truth.
Holding President Trump, or any user of social media, accountable to the truth should not be considered censorship - it should be considered sensible!