The U.S. election fraud and the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 sparked global attention. Things are still continuing to fester as mainstream social media giants began blocking President Trump (Trump) and conservative rhetoric.
After Twitter announced on Friday that it would permanently cancel Trump’s personal account, Parler, another social media program popular with Trump supporters, spiked in downloads, and Google Apple took Parler down from their respective App stores on Jan. 8 and 9 (Saturday), respectively, while Amazon shut down Parler servers on Sunday.
Gab.com, a social network that insists on free speech, said it saw a spike in visits to the Gab network after Trump was silenced by Twitter.
Twitter’s censorship of speech and the cancellation of Trump’s account has been blamed by many parties, with senior Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) saying he was more determined to roll back regulations protecting the tech giant after Twitter canceled Trump’s personal account.
Democratic members of Congress, some Republican members of Congress and the mainstream media blamed President Trump for the violent break-in into Congress, and they plan to impeach the president again.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said on Friday that she would be prepared to move forward with impeachment proceedings or move forward with activating the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office if Trump does not resign. Media reports say the Democrats plan to introduce impeachment proceedings on Jan. 11. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told the caucus in a memo that impeachment of the president is not possible before Jan. 19.
Harvard legal experts say it is unconstitutional to initiate impeachment for actions protected by the First Amendment.
Here are developments from the Jan. 10 (EST) clashes at the Capitol, and live updates on U.S. election-related content
9:20
President-elect Joe Biden promised Friday (Jan. 8) to “defeat the National Rifle Association” (NRA) after being sworn in.
The NRA, which has more than 5 million members, seeks to protect gun ownership rights under the Constitution’s Second Amendment, and the NRA’s lobbying arm recently published an article saying that Biden’s inauguration would “begin a coordinated attack on the rights of America’s gun owners.
“We must be prepared for an attack.” The NRA writes.
9:03 Nine Tech Platforms Blacklist President Trump
Nine tech giants currently run platforms that have blacklisted President Trump or restricted his account access.
They are: Twitter, Google, Apple, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Shopify, Reddit, TikTok, Twitch and Discord have all banned or restricted President Trump from using their platforms.
8:39 Twitter blocks Trump account, White House officials and congressmen rebuke
The White House officials and members of Congress have objected to Twitter’s decision to permanently ban President Trump’s use of its platform, announced Friday (8).
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a private Twitter message, “This is not the American way. They cannot be allowed to silence the voices of 75 million Americans, this is not the Chinese Communist Party. HUD Secretary Ben Carson said social media companies are suppressing large numbers of voters and erasing history.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted that it is dangerous to allow unelected big tech companies to block others’ speech. And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted a condemnation of Big Tech bias: Iran can tweet, but Trump can’t.
8:25 Beijing plans to send Yang Jiechi to the US quickly after Biden’s appointment
The Wall Street Journal recently reported, citing Chinese officials, that Beijing plans to send top diplomat Yang Jiechi to Washington shortly after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in to discuss cooperation between China and the United States.
The article said China hopes to ease trade relations with the U.S. and, in the short term, get the U.S. to lift tariffs imposed on China by the Trump administration in the trade war.
To change the trade imbalance between the U.S. and China, the Trump administration currently maintains tariffs on about $370 billion of Chinese goods to the U.S.
Advisers to President-elect Joe Biden say the tariffs will not be lifted anytime soon and that Biden plans to analyze the impact of the tariffs on the U.S. economy and consult with allies before taking action.
8:21 Federal prosecutor: Car with bombs and guns was parked near Congress
A man from Alabama parked a truck with 11 homemade bombs, an assault rifle and a handgun two blocks from the U.S. Capitol for several hours last Wednesday, federal prosecutors said.
Another man allegedly showed up at the Capitol with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and told an acquaintance he wanted to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
This is part of the disturbing details revealed so far by federal prosecutors, after U.S. media reported that it was Antifa elements who led the attack on Congress and carried out the destruction.
7:21 Congressmen to step up security at airports
CNN is reporting that members of Congress will receive more security at airports in the future, following the storming of the Capitol and the reprimanding of several congressional senators by their constituents when they traveled through airports last week.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (R-S.C.) was shouted down by supporters of President Trump as a “traitor to the country” while traveling at Reagan National Airport, according to a video posted on social media on Friday.
Prior to Wednesday’s protest, Trump supporters also confronted Utah Sen. Mitt Romney on a flight from Salt Lake City to Washington, D.C.
Also at the Jan. 20 inauguration, Capitol Police agents will beef up security at three major Washington, D.C. airports: Reagan National Airport (DCA), Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI) and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD).
7:15 Harvard legal expert: Impeaching Trump now is unconstitutional
Legal expert Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax TV that impeaching Trump in the final days of his presidency would violate the Constitution.
Democrats plan to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol. “It’s unconstitutional.” Dershowitz told Newsmax host Carl Higbie.
He said Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 do not constitute a serious crime or misdemeanor and are constitutionally protected speech, so others cannot impeach the president.
“You can condemn, you can (speech) attack, you can refuse to vote, you can do all the things you can use in politics, but the one thing you can’t do is use the law to impeach against conduct that is protected by the First Amendment.” He said.
6:30 Gab reports 750% increase in access traffic
Gab.com, the social network that insists on free speech, said Gab has seen a more than 750 percent increase in visits over the past few days after blocking President Trump’s (Trump’s) account on most mainstream tech platforms.
“We’ve seen a 753 percent increase in traffic in the last 24 hours. Tens of millions of visits.” Gab said in response to a question about slow loading speeds.
The Gab network announced it would be using ten new servers online to handle the increased traffic.
Gab is the first free speech social media alternative to Twitter. It takes a strong stance on free speech, allowing all legal content (except pornography) to be published and allowing users to take control of their experience on the platform by creating custom word filters and modules.
Gab takes an equally tough stance on illegal content and threats of violence, encouraging users to actively report such content in order to have it removed.
Despite this long-standing policy, both Apple and Google have banned Gab from their app stores for years. Both Google and Apple have now blocked Parler, another social media platform popular with Trump supporters.
6:10 Amazon shuts down Parler servers on Sunday
Amazon will shut down Parler’s servers on Sunday, Parler’s CEO said Saturday night (Jan. 9).
Parler CEO John Matze issued a statement saying, “At midnight on Sunday (Jan. 10), Amazon will shut down all of our servers in an attempt to completely eliminate free speech from the Internet. We are starting the rebuilding process from scratch, and there is a possibility that Parler will be unavailable on the Internet for up to a week. We prepared for such a scenario by no longer relying on Amazon’s proprietary infrastructure and building a bare metal product.
“We will now do our best to move to a new provider, there are many providers competing to take our business, but Amazon, Google and Apple are doing it on purpose; it’s a coordinated effort on their part and they believe that our options will be limited and also that it will cause the most damage because President Trump is banned from being vocal on the tech company’s platform.
“This is a coordinated attack by the tech giants to stifle competition in the marketplace. (Because) we’re succeeding too quickly. You can expect the war on competition and free speech to continue, but don’t think we’re out of it.”
6:00 Graham: Twitter blocked Trump’s account I’m more determined to get rid of Section 230
Senior Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he is more determined to roll back regulations protecting the tech giant after Twitter eliminated Trump’s personal account.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei can tweet, but Trump can’t,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham. That says a lot about the people who run Twitter.”
He added, “I’m more adamant than ever about repealing Big Tech’s (Twitter) Section 230 protections that don’t give them immunity from lawsuits.”
“It’s time for Congress to repeal Section 230 and to put Big Tech on the same legal footing as every other company in America. (With the same) legal responsibilities.” He said.
Twitter, Facebook and other large Silicon Valley-based technology companies have been repeatedly criticized for their uneven regulation of user content, on social media platforms. Critics claim the companies’ actions restrict conservative views and stifle free speech.
5:50 Pence to Attend Biden Inauguration
Vice President Mike Pence will attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
President Trump said on Friday that he will not attend the Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony, and Biden welcomed Trump’s non-attendance.
Biden said he would be “honored” if Pence accepted his invitation to the inauguration.
5:30 White House spokesman responds to ABC reporter
White House spokesman Kayleigh McEnany tweeted Saturday (Jan. 9) in response to ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl, saying, “The White House sent a response condemning all violence at 5:55 p.m., but he still irresponsibly tweeted at 6:38 p.m. that we had no response.
“Jon (Jon), please check your inbox before tweeting.” McKenna wrote.
The reporter asked the White House to comment on the Hang Pence threat that was made on the Internet.
Then a screenshot of a message sent to the reporter by the White House at 5:55 p.m. on the 9th shows the White House writing, “We strongly condemn all calls for violence, including those against anyone in this administration.”
Still, the reporter tweeted at 6:38 p.m., “I asked the White House spokesperson and her team to comment on the president’s threat to hang Pence from a Trump supporter. There was no response to this repeated inquiry. Will the president condemn the threats? No response from the White House. Nothing.”
5:20 DOJ issues statement clarifying fake news
A Justice Department spokesperson issued a statement on Sept. 9 that information on social media claiming to be acting pardon attorney Rosalind Sargent-Burns is false.
The statement also said the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney does not have access to social media and has not conducted any efforts to pardon individuals or groups involved in the violence that occurred in and around the U.S. Capitol this week.
5:00 Former adviser to senator compares differences in WaPo reporting
Mike Davis, a former chief counsel nominee for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), found that the Washington Post’s coverage of the Jan. 6 violence in Congress took a very different stance than its coverage of the violence last summer.
He writes, “Compare the Washington Post’s coverage of the congressional riots with the coverage of the so-called ‘Great Peace’ protesters seven months earlier, (who) burned down the 1816 St. John’s Church-President’s Church, and all the violence was wrong. Why are the reports different?”
Davis was responding to a tweet from WaPo reporter Peter Hermann, who wrote: “The congressional mob desecrated a historic workplace and left something disturbing behind.”
And Davis attached a 7-month-old WaPo story by Hermann about “peaceful protesters” who burned a church that began, “During a demonstration Sunday night, outraged by the death of George Floyd (of African descent) during a police arrest, a fire was set in the underground nursery of the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church, located on Lafayette Square across from the White House.
The protest was largely peaceful during the afternoon and evening, and after dark, a small group began setting fire to the windows.
Shortly after 10 p.m., someone tore down the American flag hanging outside the yellow church and threw it into a nearby fire. Glass doors or windows were broken.”
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