The Problem with Twitter Bans

Donald Trump is no longer allowed on Twitter. That line has brought relief to the hearts and minds of millions of citizens all over the world - after all, it always seemed like a matter of time before the rage-fueled rants were done for good. And yet, French President Emmanuel Macron very publicly made his displeasure for the same known. Were they great friends? Not particularly - they've clashed on multiple opinions, most drastically in terms of the existence of global warming.

It feels like the general perception is that bans of this kind are inherently good (due to countless articles like this). However, this is false - moves like these come with so many problems, that it gets hard to realize where we need to begin asking questions. On the other hand, we do need to start somewhere!

Thus, the question arises - is this really the beginning of a threatening 'technocracy' where society is ruled not by the norms of our usual democracy, but by algorithms and the big men in suits sitting in small board rooms at big tech companies?

There are two parts to understanding this problem in depth.

Firstly, what was the exact reasoning behind Twitter ousting Trump from their platform?

In simple words, they stated that their 'terms of service' had been breached. However, this opens up a Pandora's box of questions. Who writes these 'terms of service', who reviews them and who actually decides whether these terms have been violated? It is not the people of a democracy, not a jury, not politicians, and not judges in courts.

Perhaps even more pressingly, was this truly the first time that the services had been violated?

"We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!"

- Donald Trump on the Charlottesville incident

It can definitely be argued that by not specifically condemning the white supremacists via this tweet, or any of his public statements (as he so famously said, fine people were on "both sides") he also violated the same policy Twitter claims he broke recently.

What has changed since that Charlottesville incident is the change in presidency. This can suggest that Twitter has only really made this change in order to appease their sitting president. So, does this mean that the Terms of Service are subject to the ruling party in the United States? This is, unfortunately, a question that can only truly be answered by Twitter's top brass.

This critique of Twitter however must in no way be seen as a way to defend Trump's actions, words or even the consequences he faced. Rather, it is an attempt to make sure we understand what kind of future this charts out for us as a society - no matter how vile or callous Trump may or may not have been!

Now, the second real question to consider needs to be what does this mean for our future?

There has long been speculation about the power of tech monopolies. George Orwell's 1984 brilliantly explained exactly what could happen in a surveillance state, with the help of technology intruding every part of our lives. However, this particular case brings forward an even more interesting set of issues, like problems for what this could hold in the future. With the ousting of Trump from Twitter, the amount of content about Trump has decreased drastically. While this is largely due to the end of his presidency, there is no question that Twitter has helped remove him from the public eye, perhaps permanently.

However, suppose that Twitter turned 'evil' and decided to uproot role models like Greta Thunberg from the public eye.

Does this mean that the only thing stopping the world from devolving into total anarchy is just the inherent 'goodness' of tech behemoths like Twitter? Should there ever be a company with enough power to effectively hit the delete button about a person in everyone's minds? And now that such a company exists, is it only the men from Silicon Valley who will take such society-altering decisions to keep a person on a platform or not?

It is extremely important that we see such debate about the role of tech. It often seems like we are caught up in our hatred for a certain politician (Trump, in this case), and while the hate may be justified, placing such important topics of discussion away from public discourse is definitely not. It is up to us to make sure that these are the questions that also get discussed, before it gets too late and slips away from us.