US President Donald Trump has been behind the blocking of right-wing accounts through the services of Facebook and Twitter behind the affected users. “I continue to watch the censorship of American citizens on social media platforms, that is the United States of America – and we have something called freedom of expression – we monitor and watch closely !!”, Trump tweeted on May 3, 2019. He also criticized that conservative actor James Woods was temporarily suspended by Twitter.
I am continuing to monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms. This is the United States of America — and we have what’s known as FREEDOM OF SPEECH! We are monitoring and watching, closely!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2019
Background of the statements Trumps is the sharper approach of the social media against right-wing extremist accounts. For example, in early May 2019, Facebook banished a number of ultra-right commentators from the US and UK from its pages.
Interrupted is, among others, the American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who operates the website Infowars. Also blocked is the British provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, who has repeatedly come up with misogynist slogans and racist remarks to the public. Also affected by the Facebook ban is Louis Farrakhan, head of the radical religious-political organization “Nation of Islam,” according to a statement from the company.
Twitter insists on tweet deletion
Twitter, in turn, blocked the account of the actor Woods, who according to various media a tweet to the report of the US special investigator Robert Mueller with the hashtag “#HangThemAll” ( ” hang them all” ) should have provided.
Trump asked in this context: “How can it be that James Woods (and many others), a strong but responsible conservative voice, was banished by Twitter Social Media & Fake News, together with its partner, the Democratic Party, have? no idea of what problems they are causing themselves – very unfair”.
According to the British Guardian, however, Twitter pointed out that Woods had violated his tweet against the rules of use. His account will not be activated again until he has deleted the tweet.
