Vice: Alex Jones Incited the Capitol Riot on Facebook Even Though He Was Banned 2 Years Ago. “Research from digital rights group Avaaz published Thursday morning and shared exclusively with VICE News shows that in the 30 days leading up to the riots, content from Jones’ websites, promoting voter fraud claims telling fans to ‘prepare for war,’ amassed over 1.1 million interactions across Facebook.”
BBC: Facebook bans ‘voice of Trump’ from platform. “Facebook has removed a video of former US President Donald Trump from the page of his daughter-in-law Lara Trump. The social media giant banned Mr Trump from its platform in January following riots by his supporters on the Capitol building in Washington. Lara Trump, a new Fox News contributor, posted a video of herself interviewing Mr Trump on a range of issues.”
Post & Courier: SC could punish social media sites for suspending accounts under new proposal. “In the two months since Twitter banned President Donald Trump from its platform, leading Republican voices have lambasted the company for what they called acts of censorship — including U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Now, a freshman Upstate state lawmaker wants to go even further, requiring social media companies to inform holders of suspended Palmetto State-based accounts why they’ve been booted within 10 days or face punishment under the state’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.”
Rest of World: Silicon Valley’s double standard. “Populists don’t gain power in a vacuum. They build it using all the advantages that social media gives those who are not constrained by facts and are willing to make open calls for violence. The problem is not freedom of speech— that is sacrosanct. The problem is that, in the pursuit of profit, social media giants will amplify incendiary voices, giving them the freedom to reach more followers. It’s a systemic risk that governments need to tackle with emerging legislation.”
CNET: Facebook’s oversight board asks for public comment on Trump case. “Facebook’s content oversight board is accepting public comment on the social network’s decision to indefinitely bar Donald Trump from posting to his account because of concerns the now-former president could incite violence like the Jan. 6 insurrection at Capitol Hill.”
NBC News: YouTube suspends Giuliani from partner program, cutting access to ad revenue. “YouTube said Tuesday it had suspended Rudy Giuliani, former President Donald Trump’s lawyer, from a program that allows partners to make money from ads on their videos, after Giuliani broke YouTube’s rules by repeatedly sharing election misinformation. The suspension will last at least 30 days and has been in effect since last week, YouTube said in an email.” In the meantime, Donald Trump has had his ban extended.
Tubefilter: Insights: The Donald’s Digital Death Penalty—Deplatforming, Politics, And The Future Of Social Media. “When Twitter pulled the plug on @POTUS, it was both refreshing for my exhausted adrenal system and, in more substantive ways ways, deeply thought-provoking in its long-term implications for social media companies and their increasingly fraught relationships with politicians–and, not incidentally, all the rest of us. That’s because it wasn’t just Twitter that finally dropped the digital death penalty, or at least a temporary Cone of Silence that may become more permanent, on the now former president and newly installed Emperor of Mar-a-Lago.”
New York Times: Inside Twitter’s Decision to Cut Off Trump. “Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, was working remotely on a private island in French Polynesia frequented by celebrities escaping the paparazzi when a phone call interrupted him on Jan. 6. On the line was Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top lawyer and safety expert, with an update from the real world.”
Science: Twitter shuts down account of Sci-Hub, the pirated-papers website. “Twitter… permanently suspended the account of Sci-Hub, the website that has posted millions of freely accessible copies of scientific articles pirated from subscription journals. Twitter said Sci-Hub had violated its policy against promoting ‘counterfeit goods,’ according to Sci-Hub’s founder, Alexandra Elbakyan.”
ABC News: Facebook passes final decision to ban Trump to oversight board. “Facebook said Thursday it was referring the decision to indefinitely suspend Donald Trump’s account to its newly-formed oversight board to make the final call on what will happen to the former president’s accounts.”
CNET: After Twitter banned Trump, misinformation plummeted, says report. “The week after Twitter banned President Donald Trump from its platform, online misinformation about election fraud fell by a whopping 73%, according to a Saturday report by The Washington Post. Talk around election fraud dropped from 2.5 million mentions to 688,000 mentions across a selection of social media sites, the Post reported, citing data from researcher Zignal Labs.”
CNET: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says banning Trump was the ‘right decision’. “Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Wednesday he thought the company made the right call by permanently barring President Donald Trump’s account after violence broke out on Capitol Hill last week, but it was a decision he isn’t celebrating.”
Axios: Scoop: Snapchat will permanently ban Trump’s account. “Snapchat will permanently ban President Trump’s account on Jan. 20, Axios has learned, after locking it indefinitely last week following the Capitol siege.”
Lawfare Blog: The Facebook Oversight Board Should Review Trump’s Suspension. “While Congress works out what form of accountability it will impose on President Trump for inciting insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week, the president has faced a swift and brutal reckoning online. Snapchat, Twitch, Shopify, email providers and payment processors, among others, have all cut ties with Trump or his campaign. And after years of resisting calls to do so, both Facebook and Twitter have suspended Trump’s accounts.”
