Technology is an ideology. In an age where content is shaped by its medium more than ever before, the effects of the medium’s discretionary policies become paramount, making any qualitative intervention political in nature.
In this regard, the contrasting approaches of Twitter and Facebook – two of the biggest social media companies in the world – towards free speech and its regulation (or lack thereof), particularly in the matter of American president Donald Trump’s infamous “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” comment, begs two fundamental questions:
1. Are social media platforms justified in moderating information they host?
2. Who between Twitter and Facebook has provided a better response to such issues of moderation?
Twitter produced quite the media frenzy when it decided to flag Trump’s incendiary tweet (published on May 29, 2020) with warning labels, issued in the “public interest,” indicating that such comments violated Twitter’s rules against glorifying violence. This is not the only tweet made by Trump that has provoked such a strong response from Twitter. Previously, the social media site fact-checked Trump’s misinformation and removed his video tribute to Geroge Floyd on the grounds of copyright infringement.
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