US Law Section 230 (1996) is a law regarding social media freedom of speech regulation that stipulates;
A media platform is not to be held responsible for the publicly generated content published on its site. Platforms are allowed to moderate content without losing their immunity.
Social media platforms are allowed to regulate their platforms however they want. This includes suspending of accounts, removal of posts, censoring videos, etc. An example of a person who was banned off of social media is the infamous case of Donald Trump on the social media app Twitter, on January 6th 2021, regarding the inciting of riots at the US capital, two weeks before the inauguration of incumbent president Joe Biden.
The exact reasoning for his suspsension/ban was due to him violating the Twitter terms of service that state its users are not allowed to incite violence onto others. More specifically, he violated the Glorification of Violence policy. He did this by tweeting,
“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
Due to the context behind the tweet of the capitol riots, it was seen as an act of mobilization towards his supporters, and thus violated twitters guidelines. Shortly after this, Trump infamously started his own social media platform "Truth Social" in October of 2021, aiming to rival twitter and marketed itself as a platform with total freedom of expression.
After Twitters Acquisition by business magnate and investor Elon Musk, Musk held a public poll in which the results of said poll would decide the outcome of whether or not Trumps account would be reinstated. The poll saw 15 million participants and resulted in 51.8% of voters voting in favor of un-suspending Trumps account, and in November 2022 his account was reinstated. Trump then announced on Truth Social that he would not return to Twitter.
The whole incident had led people to question the validity of twitter as a platform of free speech, but was mainly fueled by right wing activists and Trump supporters. The guidelines of Twitter remained the same, up until Musk had purchased the platform, which then led to major changes in the terms of service.
No comments:
Post a Comment