Live data from Hacker News

Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

blog.twitter.com

171–180 of 1001 posts

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#172

Will politicians continue using Twitter et al after this? Seems a bit risky to reach out to their followers using a third-party. Why don’t they have their own website?

Most politicians really _shouldn't_ be using Twitter in the way Trump was. It's a good tool to connect with your constituents and make short announcements, but he was using it as a sole means of announcing policy and change, including firing people.

Those official communications–anything "from the office of"– should be released through official US Government channels.

Regardless, unless you're planning on inciting a raid on the capitol, you probably won't be banned as a politician. Twitter literally bent over backwards to still allow Trump to use Twitter even though he consistently broke the platform's rules.

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#174

Is it just my perception, or is their actual justification using the 2 quoted tweets kinda weak? Interpreting his boycott of an event as a call to violence seems like a huge stretch. It seems like they wanted to shoehorn a justification using his 2 latest tweets when the actual reason goes back further.

It's always been a balancing act, weighing the newsworthiness of broadcasting the words of the POTUS versus the potential damage.

The actions of his followers this week have finally tipped the scales too far.

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#175
post #28

Me thinks this will have huge implications for big tech. A Pandora’s box was just opened.

People are banned all the time for all kinds of reasons. Only when it’s” conservatives “ does the outrage machine spin up. The only reason he made it this far is because he got special treatment for YEARS

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#177

Is it just my perception, or is their actual justification using the 2 quoted tweets kinda weak? Interpreting his boycott of an event as a call to violence seems like a huge stretch. It seems like they wanted to shoehorn a justification using his 2 latest tweets when the actual reason goes back further.

When I saw the cryptic 1 sentence tweet that he wasn't going to be there, the first thing that came to mind was that he was telling his supporters indirectly that they could do whatever they wanted since he wouldn't be in harms way.

So perhaps it is a huge stretch to some, but we need to remember it is also not a stretch at all to many, especially given the recent events. Therein lies the danger.

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#178
Two extremes of takes here on HN. Either it's "too little too late" or "i don't like unelected tech leaders having the power to deplatform POTUS". The reality is somewhere in the messy middle.

If you distance yourself from the blow-by-blow and look at the chronology like a historian might, though, it is really hard to escape the fact that the social media platforms are dumping Trump days before Biden takes over. They profited from him sowing discord, and didn't even bother to finesse the exit.

I also am concerned about the long term damage of Trump leaving office continuing to claim the election was stolen. For the next couple decades there will be millions of Americans absolutely convinced that their government is taken over by a massive conspiracy against Trump. These people will put up more protests and violence in future. this is something that cannot be stamped out - Trump has to be convinced or cornered into reversing his stance publicly. That is the only way.

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#179

Is it just my perception, or is their actual justification using the 2 quoted tweets kinda weak? Interpreting his boycott of an event as a call to violence seems like a huge stretch. It seems like they wanted to shoehorn a justification using his 2 latest tweets when the actual reason goes back further.

Once the election was lost it was a forgone conclusion he was going to be banned.

This is weak justification and anyone with a non-partisan mind, or does not suffer from such an extreme bias agaist the target of this ban should be worried about the future of online censorship.

However I am sure this will simply fall on deaf ears as Never Trump's will celebrate with out even considering the bigger picture, and Trump supports will view this just further evidence the system as rigged against Trump

The ironic thing is this will do nothing to clam the most extreme of Trump supports most of whom have already been banned from twitter anyway, if anything this is tossing gasoline on the dumpster fire

Post reply on HN