They don't just believe they can do anything, they actually do it. They rudely and no longer covertly promoted themselves as a policy-making factor.
Facebook has extended the blocking of former US President Donald Trump This can be classified as another gross attack on freedom of speech and expression, in addition, there will be mid-term elections in the United States in November 2022, so by extending Trump's ban, Facebook has already prevented the former president from campaigning on their platform for the success of the Republican candidates. .
The chase against the former president began much earlier, during the presidential election campaign. At first, only some of his posts were deleted either with the pretext that they were "fake news", that is, they contained false information (it did not, but the tech giants lie as they please), or they accused Trump of inciting hatred. Then they also allowed themselves the incredible impudence, which entered American democracy with even feet, that the president who was still in office was banned from the social space by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. They found a "reason" for it again this time, according to them, the riots at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 were caused by Donald Trump's incendiary speech and messages published on his social networks.
This step can only be mentioned on the same page as the censorship used during the Soviet dictatorship and the jamming of Western radio broadcasts.
In addition, Twitter permanently banned Trump, and even proudly and cheekily declared: "they will not allow the former head of state back on their platform even if he runs in the 2024 presidential election."
Based on Facebook's statement on Friday, after the expiration of Trump's ban, i.e. at the beginning of 2023, they will again evaluate whether the former president's presence on their platform still poses a "threat" to public safety. The internal regulations of the tech giant do not allow the suspension of accounts for an indefinite period, so they could decide on the two-year suspension period for this reason. However, this can significantly influence the outcome of next year's so-called mid-term elections in 2022. on November 8, all 435 members of the House of Representatives will be re-elected, and 34 of the 100 members of the Senate. In the midterm elections, the Republicans aim to regain their majority in both houses of Congress in Washington, and Trump has already stated on several occasions that he wants to actively help his party in this.
In light of this, Facebook's current decision can therefore also be evaluated as an intervention in the election campaign on behalf of the Democrats, against the Republicans, in the same way as it happened during last year's presidential election campaign. For days, Facebook and Twitter did not allow the sharing of information about the Biden family's suspected corruption cases abroad, and even blocked the Twitter account of Trump's re-election team for a while.
If something poses a serious threat to public safety, human rights, freedom of speech and opinion, it is precisely the unscrupulous and arbitrary operation of the tech giants. The Orwellian fiction 1984 will become reality tomorrow.
(Source: MTI, title image: mandiner.hu)
