The decision of the Facebook watchdog to keep Donald Trump banned from his platforms is not just a message to world leaders who use the social network to incite violence, misinform and undermine democracies (cough, cough, Nero do Planalto). This is a message to the billionaire who spent $ 130 million to set up the said committee.
The press release published on Wednesday (5), after more than two months of debate on the suspension of the former dictator candidate “indefinitely”, also sounds like a message addressed to Mark Zuckerberg: you have not assembled a team like ours for function as a latrine for their social irresponsibility.
The committee of 20 luminaries, which includes a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, a former prime minister and also Brazilian lawyer and scholar Ronaldo Lemos, a columnist for Folha, approved the decision to defenestate Trump after posting a video supporting the invaders of the Capitol, January 6. But he also condemned the platform’s invertebrate behavior, which treated the extremism of Trump’s messages with particular tolerance, on the pretext that as head of state what he was posting was news.
The oversight committee told Zuckerberg that it had to establish criteria for banning a user, respecting the egalitarianism that he claims to defend and, in general, making choices, not improvising, every time his business model, 98% dependent on advertising, provokes tragic scenarios such as facilitating the genocide of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar.
Nick Clegg’s first statement on the committee’s decision was exquisite hypocrisy, an indispensable quality for those who occupy the post of janitor, that is, vice president of global affairs for Mark Zuckerberg’s planetary stronghold. Clegg wrote on Twitter: “We will now develop a clear and proportionate response.”
Which is commensurate with inciting a revolt with dead on Capitol Hill, the coup attempt to annul the election and suggesting that people can ingest bleach to cure the coronavirus, will ask mortals whose Facebook accounts have been suspended for posting bare-breasted Renaissance paintings?
If the name Nick Clegg sounds familiar to you, it’s because he was British Deputy Prime Minister in David Cameron’s first term, succeeded in destroying the electoral base of his party, the Liberal Democrats, and crossed the Atlantic while fleeing the civic duty to help in combat. the Brexit disaster he helped create by backing Conservative Cameron.
Most of the 2.8 billion users of Zuckerberg’s dystopia live outside the United States. Bloodthirsty autocrats like the Indian Narendra Modi, the Filipino Rodrigo Duterte, the Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, moreover, of course, Nero do Planalto, were awaiting the decision of Facebook, which could have more than consequences for the security of democracies. Facebook, owner of Instagram and WhatsApp, is an integral part of elections in most countries.
Donald Trump was more present on Twitter, where he reached nearly 90 million subscribers and used the platform to fire ministers, threaten countries and announce other government decisions. Jack Dorsey, CEO and founder of Twitter, has warned that Trump’s ban there is final.
Dear readers, I can hardly explain the relief of not having, as a duty of duty, to spend seven days a week watching the orange ogre on the social network, even before the first dose of caffeine in the morning.
But Facebook, where it had 35 million followers, is crucial for Trump in relieving cult members of his hard-earned dollars.
The ex-president’s gang, gathered at the seaside resort of Mar-a-Lago, eagerly awaited the committee’s announcement to speed up fundraising. At stake are the 2022 midterm elections, in which Trump actively promotes loyal politicians and tries to defeat Republicans who don’t kiss his hand. And, above all, the presidential election of 2024 which, he swears, will take place.
The committee’s recommendation, which Facebook management promises to honor, that the company come up with a solution for Trump in six months, also gives the Biden administration time. He can try to articulate a coherent strategy to deal with Mark Zuckerberg’s obscene monopoly and its effects on democratic erosion.
After all, it’s no wonder Biden brought two certain New York lawyers into government. Tim Wu and Lina Khan, both of Columbia University, have been called upon to explore solutions for the Facebook giant, Google and Amazon.
Mark Zuckerberg holds the company’s power over Trump’s access to its platforms. In politics, six months can be an eternity. But the committee he set up, hoping to go unpunished, has shown greater loyalty to democracy.
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