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Written by Giles Turner
Tech companies have tried to contain a growing backlash against their social media sites, with shares of Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. falling early in negotiations and rival platform Talking being forced offline by Amazon.com Inc.
Twitter fell 7.8% in pre-negotiation in New York after permanently banning President Donald Trump for risking incitement to violence, citing articles referring to riots in the US capital last week, deleting one of the biggest accounts on Twitter. Facebook’s shares fell 2%.
Talk Network focused on Freedom of Expression, led by CEO John Matze, has been taken offline early Monday after Amazon Web Services shut down access to its servers, leaving him homeless online. Google and Apple Inc. have kicked Speak from their stores, making it nearly impossible to download the app.
The tech giants are trying to distance themselves from accusations they helped fuel violence in the January 6 takeover of Capitol Hill by a crowd cheered on by Trump. So far Parler has not been able to find other web hosting services ready to step in due to the negative publicity stemming from the violence, which is partly organized on its own platform.
“It’s not due to software restrictions – we have our software and everyone’s data ready to go,” Matze said. “Rather, it is that statements from Amazon, Google, and Apple to the press about dropping our access caused most of our other providers to drop their support for us as well.”
Even ecommerce or payment sites are now reassessing their business relationships with companies linked to Trump. Stripe Inc. will stop processing payments for Trump’s campaign website, according to a person familiar with the decision. Shopify Inc. has also closed Trump-affiliated e-commerce stores.
Before last week’s violence, lawmakers and civil rights activists had long pressured social media platforms to crack down on posts that encourage violence or hate. While regulators in Europe have passed laws imposing fines on companies that do not act on hate speech, the United States has largely left regulation to companies. Twitter first put warning labels on Trump’s tweets that supported the Capitol rioters, then hid them, before suspending the account.
Reactions from politicians outside the United States have been mixed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel questioned the decision to shut down Trump’s accounts on Monday, saying it should be up to lawmakers to set the rules for social media platforms.
Despite his success on Twitter and Facebook, Trump is among those calling for reforms to social media platforms.
The president has long demanded that Congress revoke Section 230, a liability waiver that social media companies depend on to allow relatively free speech on their platforms.
During his last week in office, Trump may seek to push through changes to Section 230. Trump has also prepared several executive orders relating to large tech companies, but it is not clear whether any will be released. Bloomberg reported.
“I am more determined than ever to remove the protections from Section 230 of Big Tech (Twitter) that protect them from prosecution,” tweeted Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.
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