OMAHA- Shortly after the invasion of the Capitol, President Trump was banned from Twitter. Trump had 88 million followers and had tweeted 36,000 times in four years. Twitter noted their decision was warranted because of the president's irresponsible use of the platform by lying about the outcome of the election and said he used Twitter to invite the deadly riot. Shortly after this, Trump was also banned from Facebook.
Trump supporters, obviously enraged by these decisions, claimed this is in violation of the First Amendment. The simple answer to that, is this does not violate free speech laws. The First Amendment guarantees this freedom to private individuals, organizations or businesses, not government officials. Simon & Schuster publishing company also canceled a book that challenged the results of the Electoral College written by Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.). Companies from Marriott to Walmart have also paused donations to Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying the Electoral College results.
However, this creates a puzzle. If the government could not constitutionally ban Trump from Twitter, why is Twitter allowed to do so? Twitter, although a private enterprise, has a huge voice in public discourse. Should they be trusted with the authority to determine the bounds of public discourse? There are private companies and then there are private companies like Twitter and Facebook. Legal expert Richard Epstein says the decision is questionable.
“The safest control against a monopoly—in every market that you’d care to invent—is new entry,” Mr. Epstein says. In any case, who would the enforcers be for a potential nondiscrimination rule against social-media monopolies? The answer underscores the unlikelihood of such action: “It’s going to be essentially the Biden administration telling the Twitter company that they can’t discriminate against Trump.”
Companies are also starting to comment on all aspects of the political arena, including gay rights, the climate change conversation and more. The question has not yet been answered and will need to be addressed as situations like this will become more common.