Of hosts and parasites

Two online platforms have made good on the words in their terms of service, penalizing Donald Trump and his most virulent enablers for spreading hate and lies. Now hope the granddaddy of them all, Facebook, responds to a pressure campaign and consistently enforces its own guidelines.

Monday, Twitch temporarily suspended Trump’s campaign account for hateful rhetoric. So did the messaging board Reddit, which put in the penalty box a community called “The Donald,” for “attacking marginalized or vulnerable groups of people.”

Now comes the far harder part: enforcing rules without fear or political favor. While it’s true that there is no prominent American politician as odious as Trump, there are plenty of left-leaning racists, anti-Semites and inciters of violence online too.

We are pleased to see Facebook, the $600 billion behemoth, squirm and react as huge advertisers pull their contracts for July or beyond in response to Stop Hate for Profit, an alliance of groups including the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP and others. Facebook should not pocket money from or amplify the messages of those who use its technology to spread outright racism, incitement and lies; today, it often does.

But it, and Twitter and others, must take great pains to ensure that it applies standards fairly. Conservative claims of overrzealous clampdowns are not invented out of whole cloth.

As American colleges have learned the hard way, lively conversations on Islamic radicalism, racism, Mideast politics and transgender identity can make people uncomfortable. Hypersensitivity that shuts down conversations only feeds more resentment.