4 ms·

Merkel has stated that she didn't believe it was good that Facebook/Twitter banned Trump from their platforms fwiw.

jacob2484 5y ago
She also very strongly condemned what happened on Jan 6 and blamed Trump for it. She's right on both fronts.
nnamtr 5y ago
Merkel grew up in a country where you could be "banned" for anything. I'm not surprised that she doesn't like the idea of private companies deciding according to their own (not democraticly chosen) rules who should speak and who shouldn't.
namlem 5y ago
I don't see why Trump should be above the terms of service that all other users have to abide by.
- supergirl 5y ago
  it's not really about TOS though. it's about Twitter being legally allowed to remove any content from their website for whatever reason. the question is should they be allowed to do this given the monopoly they have. But I find it hilarious that Twitter/Google/etc. champion "free speech" in Russia, China, etc. yet in US they literally censored the sitting president and many people are OK with this.
  - namlem 5y ago
    There is certainly an argument to be made against arbitrary removals of content. I agree that perhaps there should be limits on networks above a certain size. However, Twitter banning Trump was anything but arbitrary. The fact that they didn't ban him sooner despite his frequent violations of their TOS is evidence that they were biased in his favor, if anything.
  - bellyfullofbac 5y ago
    Sure he was "sitting president" but he was actually stoking flames of violence the day he got banned. In general Twitter was a terrible enabler for Trump, he's such a coward that he didn't dare firing people face to face, he fired people with tweets. And it made him a keyboard hero conveniently attacking people using it, if he had to go in front of the press to spout his bullshit he surely would've been more reserved, because there'd be direct pushback for everything he said.
- CountDrewku 5y ago
  You're right the tos should be equally applied across the board. However, they're not. Twitter and other social media sites do not apply tos fairly.
Dma54rhs 5y ago
It's a common idea in Europe, many dissidents like Navalny were disappointed. American left lives in their own bubble and cherry picks things from Europe they like and ignore the rest.

She also very strongly condemned what happened on Jan 6 and blamed Trump for it. She's right on both fronts.

Merkel grew up in a country where you could be "banned" for anything. I'm not surprised that she doesn't like the idea of private companies deciding according to their own (not democraticly chosen) rules who should speak and who shouldn't.

namlem 5y ago

I don't see why Trump should be above the terms of service that all other users have to abide by.

supergirl 5y ago
it's not really about TOS though. it's about Twitter being legally allowed to remove any content from their website for whatever reason. the question is should they be allowed to do this given the monopoly they have. But I find it hilarious that Twitter/Google/etc. champion "free speech" in Russia, China, etc. yet in US they literally censored the sitting president and many people are OK with this.
- namlem 5y ago
  There is certainly an argument to be made against arbitrary removals of content. I agree that perhaps there should be limits on networks above a certain size. However, Twitter banning Trump was anything but arbitrary. The fact that they didn't ban him sooner despite his frequent violations of their TOS is evidence that they were biased in his favor, if anything.
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  Sure he was "sitting president" but he was actually stoking flames of violence the day he got banned. In general Twitter was a terrible enabler for Trump, he's such a coward that he didn't dare firing people face to face, he fired people with tweets. And it made him a keyboard hero conveniently attacking people using it, if he had to go in front of the press to spout his bullshit he surely would've been more reserved, because there'd be direct pushback for everything he said.
CountDrewku 5y ago
You're right the tos should be equally applied across the board. However, they're not. Twitter and other social media sites do not apply tos fairly.

Dma54rhs 5y ago

It's a common idea in Europe, many dissidents like Navalny were disappointed. American left lives in their own bubble and cherry picks things from Europe they like and ignore the rest.