The blocking of Trump‘s social media accounts by big U.S. technology companies led by Twitter (Twitter) has sparked a strong public backlash not only in the U.S., but also in Germany and France in unison. On Monday (11), Twitter’s share price plunged by 12% and its market value evaporated $5 billion. The outside world believes that this indicates that the negative effect of Twitter blocking Trump has begun to erupt.
According to the U.S. media “U.S. News Express” reports, Monday morning, the U.S. social media giant Twitter and Facebook shares both plummeted, Twitter’s shares once plunged 12.3% in the morning; Facebook shares once fell 4.4%.
This is the first trading day after the two social media giants announced the blocking of Trump’s account. Public opinion believes that the double plunge in the share price of Twitter and Facebook is the inevitable after-effect of the censorship it has imposed on its users.
After the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Facebook took the lead on Jan. 7, announcing that Trump’s account would be blocked for at least two weeks; Twitter announced on the evening of Jan. 8 that it would permanently ban Trump’s personal account for fear of “further risk of inciting violence.
The media’s silencing of Trump first sparked a major public backlash at home. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Mike Pompeo), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (Lindsey Graham) and other members of the House and Senate and some dignitaries have spoken out against the practice of Twitter, Facebook and other social media giants.
Pompeo warned that undermining free speech does not work in the U.S. and that this is “not the Chinese Communist Party,” while Graham said bluntly, “The fact that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei can tweet, but Trump can’t, says a lot about the people running Twitter people have a lot of problems.”
Before he was blocked, Trump had more than 88 million followers on Twitter. After Trump was blocked, a large number of internet users and conservatives who support him have taken a stand to boycott Twitter. In the last two days, a large number of Twitter users have migrated to other online social media platforms.
Andrea Cicione, head of strategy at TS Lombard Consulting, said in an interview with Reuters, “Trump has very highly loyal supporters, and if Trump’s posting is permanently restricted, a lot of these eyeballs (meaning users) will disappear.”
Trump himself said publicly that he had expected this to happen, so he was already coordinating with other platforms and would soon make a major announcement. At the same time, he also said that he would consider possibly setting up his own online platform.
In fact, the blocking of Trump’s account not only triggered a strong public backlash in the United States, but also sparked controversy internationally, with unanimous opposition from Germany and France.
On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Angela Merkel) said she opposed Twitter’s decision to blatantly block the elected president’s account. She said it was up to lawmakers, not private technology companies, to set the rules on freedom of expression.
Speaking at a regular press conference in Berlin, Merkel’s chief spokeswoman Steffen Seibert said interference with speech should be done according to the law and within the framework set by the legislature, and should not be decided by a company.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire also said that the state, not the “digital oligarchy,” should be responsible for setting regulations. He believes that social media companies such as Twitter are trying to silence the U.S. president, indicating that big technology companies have posed a threat to democracy.
Indeed, in recent years, European countries have become increasingly concerned about the growing influence of big tech companies. The EU is currently working on regulations that would allow it to break up tech platforms if they don’t comply with them.
“It’s not normal for heads of state to be blocked.” Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s right-wing National Rally party, commented on French TV2, “We, as French people, also wonder if big companies like the digital tech giants have the power to decide who can speak and what can be said?”
Gilbert Collard, a member of the Union Nationale, also pointed out indignantly on BFM TV that by allowing the tech giants to do so, the U.S. is giving private institutions the privilege of censoring public speech.
Even the French leftist parties are strongly dissatisfied with the “domination” of the digital technology giant (GAFA). They are worried that today Trump’s posts can be arbitrarily deleted or blocked, and other groups or individuals, including their own organizations, will also face the same danger of being arbitrarily blocked by the social networking giant in the future.
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