Online presence Portfolio Project
It has been four months since a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to discourage Congress from exercising their constitutional duty and to promote Trump’s false allegations of election fraud. Four months have also passed since former President Donald Trump was suspended from social media platforms Twitter, and banned on Facebook and Instagram, for inciting insurrection in the U.S. Capitol.
The events on January 6th raised discussion over politicians’ place on social media, and about where the line is drawn for the spread of misinformation through social media platforms. For Donald Trump, it was drawn after five people died after the mob broke into the Capitol and battled the police, while lawmakers were counting votes to confirm the presidential victory of Democrat Joe Biden (Petras et al., 2021).
This happened after a “Save America Rally” set up by Donald Trump took place earlier that morning. Trump tweeted about the rally on December 19th, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”. At the rally, Trump spoke to them for over an hour, saying that “Our country has had enough”. “We will not take it anymore, and that’s what this is all about. To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.” Trump’s false allegations that the election had been stolen and rigged circulated all over social media, with him tweeting and posting about it continuously. With a following of 81.1 million on Twitter (Tankovska, 2021), Trump was devoted to using the platform regularly as a means of “modern day presidential” communication. Nearing the end of his presidency, Trump’s use of the platform increased. It was recorded that during the month of June, he tweeted 200 times in a single day. Twitter also took initiative to mark tweets written by Donald Trump such as “Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed,” with a small notice that read “Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” which would lead people to facts-based reporting on the subject, instead of blindly believing Trump’s claims (Pietsch, 2020).
The influx of tweets that Donald Trump was posting in relation to the election was overwhelming. Following the dangerous protests and looting that were taking place in Minneapolis after the tragic death of George Floyd, Trump tweeted: “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” This is when Twitter took a stand and a warning was placed on this tweet that warned users of the violation of its policies about “glorifying violence” before allowing users to see it.
The platform had never restricted a president’s tweet before that day. On the day of the capitol storming, Trump tweeted a video that lasted over a minute, where he stated:
I know your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. … So go home. We love you, you’re very special. … I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace. (Petras et al., 2021)
Certain tweets addressing the riot were permanently deleted, and Twitter proceeded to ban the president from tweeting for 12 hours, the ban was then imposed. Facebook and Instagram also chose to remove the clip and announced that his accounts were temporarily suspended, without a definite time frame. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, commented on the ban, saying that the extension of the block will last until “‘the peaceful transition of power is complete’” (Perrigo,2021) This decision was met by a lot of praise by the majority, as it is safe to say that people have had enough of Trump’s unpresidential proclivity for promoting fake news, spreading racist claims, bashing the media, and not accepting any losses (Messina, 2021). It was not the first time that one of his absurd posts was circulating the internet, usually along with the type of comments that question his presidential seriousness.
It is argued that Trump’s ban from social media came a bit late. Facebook and Twitter have had rules against inciting violence, although never acted upon them when it came to critics saying that Trump has crossed the line, and was fanning the flames of violence. Reason as to why certain posts from Trump have not been removed was the allowance of freedom of speech, even if they may have been highly controversial. Zuckerberg stated that over the many years, they have allowed President Trump to use their platforms as long as he obeys its’ guidelines, whilst at times they had to remove his content or label his posts due to the violation of their policies. He also added that this was done because they “believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government’” (Romano & Bucksbaum, 2021).
The decision was then turned over to the Facebook Oversight Board for an appeal. The Facebook Oversight board is an outside group created and funded by Facebook, where users can bring forward important company decisions, and Facebook can pass any controversial decisions over to them. They took on to say that the permanent ban on Trump’s accounts was “indeterminate and standardless”. They provided a six month timeframe for Facebook to come up with a solution which is “consistent with the rules that are applied to other users on its platform” (Cellan-Jones, 2021). Trump’s response to this decision was that what Facebook, Twitter, and Google have done is “ a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our country,” he also went on to say that the exercise of free speech has been stolen away from the President of the United States, indicating that he was still in that position. The ban did not stop the former President from spreading misinformation, as he continued on to say that “The People of our Country will not stand for it! These corrupt social media companies must pay a political price, and must never again be allowed to destroy and decimate our Electoral Process” (Shapiro, 2021).
Although this decision by Facebook was met with criticism which say that this is a way for big tech to mute free speech, or a way of “censorship”, one must take into consideration that if this decision was taken towards a regular person, no one would objectify it, and it would be seen as inciting violence, so why should that be seen as any different when applied to a former President? Furthermore, one of Facebook’s guidelines under violence and criminal behaviours states that they aim to “prevent potential offline harm that may be related to content on Facebook,” (“Community Standards”, 2021) so it is only just that Facebook has taken this step after all. Granted, it is argued that Facebook took too long to follow and act upon its guidelines. The friction between Trump and Facebook has been present for nearly six years. Back in 2015, then-candidate Trump had posted a video suggesting for a ban on the entry of Muslims into the U.S. Facebook declined to remove this controversial video as it applied to the company’s “newsworthiness” policy. This suggests that although certain posts may go against the guidelines presented by the company, the public-interest value shows to be of more importance than the publics’ safekeeping (Lerman & Kelly, 2021).
It is situations like these where one stops to think about how truly powerful social media platforms can be. In days where social media did not exist, it would have been more difficult to get your opinion across to millions of people; although, through today’s easily accessible platforms, one can easily do so, influencing many people in mere seconds. Controversy, being one of the most important values when it comes to newsworthiness in journalism, can have its’ negative impact on a society that is easily impressionable. The events that happened on January 6th are a clear indication that feeding misinformation, and riling up an audience that looks up to you, may end in serious consequences that lead to harm on others. Ben Scott, an executive director of Reset, a group which is lobbying for stricter regulation of tech platforms, very reasonably stated that “The riots in D.C. yesterday demonstrate very clearly the consequences of disinformation amplified in social media with such incessant frequency that it becomes an alternative reality for those targeted with lies and conspiracy,” (Perrigo, 2021). Divisive content may forever be present within big tech companies, disguised as free speech. Companies may be seen as monopolies when tackling with such issues such as turning a blind eye to extremism, glorifying violence, and even child abuse (Feeney, 2021).
In conclusion, the monitoring of such divisive content should be improved massively and not ignored, especially withinbig tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google. People turn to these platforms nowadays to get the latest news, share their opinion, and also take in other people’s opinions, whether that be correct or false. Trump’s ban from these platforms due to broken guidelines was long awaited and justified due to the extreme consequences that his words led to. These actions should be taken before an injustice happens, instead of after.
References
Cellan-Jones, R. (2021). Facebook’s Trump ban upheld by Oversight Board for now. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56985583
Community Standards. (2021). Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/violence_criminal_behavior
Feene, M. (2021). Big Tech and Free Speech. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://www.cato.org/policy-report/january/february-2021/big-tech-free-speech
Lerman, R., & Kelly, H. (2021). Facebook’s Oversight Board has decided the fate of Trump’s account. Here’s everything you need to know. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/05/03/facebook-trump-decision-faq/
Messina, V. (2021). How on Earth Has It Taken This Long to Suspend Trump From Social Media?. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://www.popsugar.co.uk/news/donald-trump-social-media-ban-essay-48096973?utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=US:MT&utm_source=www.google.com
Perrett, C. (2020). Trump broke his all-time tweeting record amid nationwide protests, sending more tweets in a single day than he did during his impeachment trial. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://www.insider.com/trump-breaks-record-most-tweets-in-a-single-day-2020-6
Perrigo, B. (2021). Why Facebook and Twitter Finally Suspended Trump After Capitol Riots. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://time.com/5927398/facebook-twitter-trump-suspension-capitol/
Petras, G., Loehrke, J., Padilla, R., Zarracina, J., & Borresen, J. (2021). Timeline: How the storming of the U.S. Capitol unfolded on Jan. 6. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://eu.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/01/06/dc-protests-capitol-riot-trump-supporters-electoral-college-stolen-election/6568305002/
Pietsch, B. (2020). Trump’s feud with Twitter, explained in 30 seconds. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-feud-with-twitter-executive-order-fact-check-tweets-explained-2020-5
Romano, N., & Bucksbaum, S. (2021). Donald Trump permanently suspended from Twitter, banned from Facebook and Instagram ‘indefinitely’. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://ew.com/celebrity/donald-trump-banned-facebook-instagram/
Shapiro, E. (2021). Trump responds after Facebook ban extended pending additional review. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-remain-banned-facebook-now-oversight-board-rules/story?id=77503217
Tankovska, H. (2021). Twitter: heads of state with the most followers 2020 | Statista. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/281375/heads-of-state-with-the-most-twitter-followers/
Troyer, M. (2020). Top Trump tweets since Election Day 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2021, from https://stacker.com/stories/6057/top-trump-tweets-election-day-2020
