BerlinIn connection with the blocking of Donald Trump’s Twitter account, there was talk of a historically unique process. But what is historical and what is unique here? The President of the United States of America was deprived of the opportunity to spread agitation and lies millions of times over: Does that show how the Internet company is finally assuming its social responsibility after the Trumpists’ storm on the Washington Capitol? And what if Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, Snapchat and TikTok followed suit and decided to ban Trump permanently and for all time?
Blocking for life on all relevant, i.e. wide-reaching social media: that would indeed be historic and unique. But if you really want to use such big terms, then the following also applies: Not only has the Republican Party incurred historical guilt because, out of sheer opportunism, it supported a violent, word-breaking chauvinist without significant resistance, but also the aforementioned networks – as compliant Donald Trump’s henchman. Twitter, Facebook et al. helped create a monster for their number of clicks and range.
The corporations always justified their behavior with their chronicler duty: They are required to make all statements of politicians unfiltered and uncensored accessible to the general public so that they can form their own opinion on the broadest possible basis. That was and is, if at all, but only half the truth: in fact, corporations like Twitter and Facebook have massively attacked the democratic public they are supposed to defend by making resentment the only binding guideline for public action.
The case of Donald Trumps shows: Twitter and Facebook live parasitically on the democratic public sphere – by threatening and destroying it. The fact that they are now moving away from @realdonaldtrump is nothing more than another act of opportunism.
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