Trump without His Social Media Network

The social media networks have dropped Donald Trump, at least for now, and it didn’t take long for those who defend freedom of speech to react. What really struck me was the moment I realized how much of that response came from Mexicans who asserted that some people will celebrate the fact that those platforms have decided to stop following the circus. There will be much that is suspicious about what happened in Congress last Wednesday, but nobody can say that the insurrection was a surprise, much less that they expected anything else from Trump. “We had an election that was stolen from us. But you have to go home now. We love you,” as Trump tweeted, is not a message of conciliation.

Twitter and Facebook continue to be an essential piece to this social change puzzle; they have certainly not been innocent regarding their methods for determining who can and cannot post on their platforms. However, this week they had to make the historic decision to refuse a voice to someone who, without a doubt, will remain one of the biggest scoundrels of all time. Of course, they did this when they could no longer be anything else but an accomplice to Trump’s actions or oppose them, but the moment did arrive. Trump gave them the reason (inciting violence is a reason for suspending an account under the rules of the social media platforms) and they did it.

It will be worth examining how Trump spends his last two weeks as president (we’ll see) without Twitter. However, to those who defend the freedom of speech at any cost: Shutting someone up is not the same thing as offering your platform to someone so they can order murder. Trump will always scream “Fire!” in a room where there is none, causing chaos and death. That’s the line that was crossed this week.