TECH FIRMS HAVE DONE A `HORRIBLE THING,' TRUMP SAYS.
Furious after banishment for inciting mob
President Donald Trump lashed out at Silicon Valley on Tuesday in his first public comments since Twitter banned him, claiming the industry had done a “horrible thing for our country and to our country.”
The president told reporters that the social- media sites had made a “catastrophic mistake” and acted in a politically “divisive” manner after punishing the president for comments last week the companies said threatened to incite violence.
And Trump defended his speech in front of a mob last week that later stormed the U.S. Capitol, claiming even its controversial parts were “totally appropriate.”
Trump's renewed attacks come as House Democrats plan to ramp up their scrutiny of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. Party lawmakers in recent days have faulted tech giants for acting too slowly to stop Trump's online rhetoric from precipitating real- world chaos.
“There's no question that our committee is going to investigate and have hearings on the whole issue that we've been dealing with, in terms of what they can do on their platforms,” said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Twitter and Facebook “were letting the president say things that ultimately resulted in incitement of this mob that attacked the Capitol, and I'm glad they've taken action now,” Pallone added in an interview. “But this opens up a whole issue of how are they policing the internet to prevent false information and incitements of violence.”
Democratic lawmakers for years have called on Facebook, Google and Twitter to take a more aggressive approach to a wide array of harmful content online, including election- year disinformation and hate speech. All three tech giants in response have invested heavily to spot and remove more problematic posts, photos and videos before they can go viral. But the efforts have not come fast enough for many policymakers in Washington, who repeatedly have threatened stiff regulation in response.
In addition to the bans, Facebook on Monday announced a heightened crackdown on election disinformation ahead of Biden's inauguration. Twitter late Monday said it purged approximately 70,000 accounts associated with the conspiracy theory Qanon. Companies including Amazon, Apple and Google have set their sites on Parler, an alternative social network. The site remains dark online. Parler denies the charges and has sued Amazon to force it to resume hosting the site.