Deplatformed Trump Launches His Own Social Media Platform

It was released this week by Trump Media and Technology Group that former US President Donald Trump will launch his own Social Media Platform. [caption id="attachment_24482" align="alignnone" width="900"] Trumps suspended Twitter account - Startupteknoloji.com[/caption]

Dare or Truth?

The new social media platform is named TRUTH Social by Trump. It is expected to release a beta version in November. Only invited guests will have access to the beta version. Then after the national rollout is expected to be in the 1 quarter of 2022. This all happened after the supportive and confirmative statements of the former president about the attacks in the US Capital on Jan 6 2021. The attacks were made by protestors marching in favor of Trump. After that Trump was banned first by Twitter and then Facebook and Instagram and YouTube.

Deplatforming The President

Sebastian Monnet from www.Dipolamacy.edu a Swiss-Maltese non-governmental organization, says “Donald Trump is merely a symptom of a phenomenon that threatens most democratic norms and principles, not the cause. The very functioning of social media is the problem. Algorithms that recommend content, be it political, sensationalist, hateful, or falsehoods, to keep users engaged, and maximize revenues, should be regulated if not forbidden. This would effectively slow down the spread of misinformation without impeding the users’ right to freedom of speech. Limiting freedom of speech is not the solution. Regulating the ‘freedom to reach’ on the other hand appears indispensable moving forward.” On the other hand, Wayne Rash from www.Forbes.com reports “The question is whether it’s legal for the companies to remove a sitting President from a publicly available social media platform such as Twitter or Facebook. This question was answered by Hillary Brill, director of Georgetown Law’s Institute. Brill noted the outcry by many when it happened that it was somehow a limitation on free speech. However, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution only protects free speech against limitations from the government. She noted that Twitter, Facebook, and other companies were private companies. There is no First Amendment issue regarding their actions to block the President from posting on their services.”

So What Now?

Another question lies ahead if private social media companies will be able to shape politics in the future by such muting of any politicians or not. Therefore, can the fundamental national laws be undermined by company policies of social media corporations with a private agenda in the background? In other words, can company policies overrule the law in the future?