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Perhaps you're confused, but the rest of Europe isn't confused at how Twitter has a lot of power: German Chancellor Angela Merkel objected to the decisions [of

Perhaps you're confused, but the rest of Europe isn't confused at how Twitter has a lot of power: German Chancellor Angela Merkel objected to the decisions [of banning Trump], saying on Monday that lawmakers should set the rules governing free speech and not private technology companies. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-11/merkel-sees-closing-trump-s-social-media-accounts-problematic https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-11/merkel-se... Emmanuel Macron blasts social media platforms for banning Trump https://www.axios.com/macron-social-media-bans-trump-twitter-facebook-bf8640d0-57d0-4747-affb-e91835f9fb84.html https://www.axios.com/macron-social-media-bans-trump-twitter...

pcmoney 5y ago
I don't think you understand free speech in the US context, Twitter is protected by the first amendment, it itself has freedom of speech and of association. It does not have to allow anything it doesn't want on its platform. It could ban everyone wearing blue in their profile photo, it is THEIR platform. If Twitter COULDN'T ban anyone they wanted under US law THEN it would be a violation of free speech.
- hooplah 5y ago
  Except the ruling that Trump could not ban people from his feed because it was considered an official government medium. I believe that's the core case that Trump's lawyers are making in their class action lawsuit. https://www.npr.org/2019/07/09/739906562/u-s-appeals-court-rules-trump-violated-first-amendment-by-blocking-twitter-follo https://www.npr.org/2019/07/09/739906562/u-s-appeals-court-r... Also, laws can change, the government should not and can not delegate things to businesses things that they cannot do themselves. If Twitter can legally do it is one thing, should they morally do it?
- Engineering-MD 5y ago
  And that wouldn’t be an issue if twitter wasn’t so dominant for this form of communication between positions and people. It’s because it is so entrenched without a meaningful equivalent service that this becomes significant.
  - pcmoney 5y ago
    Could you explain how it is dominant? It is literally one tenth the size of Facebook. It is not even one of the top 10 social networks, currently at #17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_platforms_with_at_least_100_million_active_users https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_platforms_with_...
    - Engineering-MD 5y ago
      It’s hard to draw clear lines between domains, but I think for public representation of official organisations, there isn’t any other. So for this purpose it’s dominant.

pcmoney 5y ago

I don't think you understand free speech in the US context, Twitter is protected by the first amendment, it itself has freedom of speech and of association. It does not have to allow anything it doesn't want on its platform. It could ban everyone wearing blue in their profile photo, it is THEIR platform. If Twitter COULDN'T ban anyone they wanted under US law THEN it would be a violation of free speech.

hooplah 5y ago
Except the ruling that Trump could not ban people from his feed because it was considered an official government medium. I believe that's the core case that Trump's lawyers are making in their class action lawsuit. https://www.npr.org/2019/07/09/739906562/u-s-appeals-court-rules-trump-violated-first-amendment-by-blocking-twitter-follo https://www.npr.org/2019/07/09/739906562/u-s-appeals-court-r... Also, laws can change, the government should not and can not delegate things to businesses things that they cannot do themselves. If Twitter can legally do it is one thing, should they morally do it?
Engineering-MD 5y ago
And that wouldn’t be an issue if twitter wasn’t so dominant for this form of communication between positions and people. It’s because it is so entrenched without a meaningful equivalent service that this becomes significant.
- pcmoney 5y ago
  Could you explain how it is dominant? It is literally one tenth the size of Facebook. It is not even one of the top 10 social networks, currently at #17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_platforms_with_at_least_100_million_active_users https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_platforms_with_...
  - Engineering-MD 5y ago
    It’s hard to draw clear lines between domains, but I think for public representation of official organisations, there isn’t any other. So for this purpose it’s dominant.