As we saw last Wednesday, 1/6/2021, violence broke out at our nation’s Capitol. Many have been pointing fingers to place blame for these horrible acts, and some are pointing fingers at Donald Trump. Because of the words he tweeted before, during, and after this event, Twitter chose to temporarily ban Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) for 12 hours on Wednesday. On Friday, 1/8/2021, Twitter enacted a permanent shutdown of his account due to further violations.

Private Company Censorship Is Not a First Amendment Violation

Even as most words of the United States Constitution are being reviewed for new interpretations, the Twitter/Trump shutdown is rather clear. Twitter is a private company, which means they have the right NOT to serve a person. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution:

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Twitter is a private company, and it did not violate any laws prohibiting discrimination. Discrimination includes education, employment, housing, lending, public accommodations, law enforcement/police misconduct, or voting. Since it didn’t violate any Civil Rights, they had every right to decide in accordance with their rules. Whether Donald Trump liked it or not, he was using Twitter under the Twitter Rules, which he had to abide by, or his services would be discontinued. The Twitter Rules are pretty clear.

Twitter’s Announcement and Explanation

Twitter took to its blog on 1/8/2021 to announce that it had permanently suspended @realDonaldTrump for violating its rules. In this blog, they also referenced a “World Leaders: principles & approach” in which they outlined what they expected of world leaders to use and continue to use their services.

Social Media’s Crackdown

Not only did Twitter ban Donald Trump’s account, but it also caught him using a colleague’s Twitter account and shut that account down as well. Facebook and Instagram have also followed suit and banned Trump’s accounts for violating their terms of service. The rules were in writing, and we all had to agree to them to use their services.

Effects on Daily Life

The effects on daily life are much more noticeable with social media post vetting than in early 2020. Most social media platforms have AI bots that help them enforce their rules by searching for words and phrases that will set off an alarm and cause a temporary account ban if used. Unfortunately, that leaves no room for a grey area. I’ve noticed that many organic and paid social media posts have been flagged much more than in the past. I’ve even heard several news reports about people having their accounts banned for quoting these words in a completely different context.

In summary, business owners who use social media accounts to get their messages out will need to be much more careful with the words and phrases they use. This will be a topic of conversation for many months and years to come. Due to the huge dependence individuals and brands have on social media, companies need to get the word out to their hundreds, thousands, or millions of followers.