Soon a world without Trump's tweets?
The Republican billionaire's run-ins with Twitter and Facebook may well break down into new episodes to follow in the coming weeks.
After the invasion of the Capitol on Wednesday by supporters of the incumbent president - which resulted in five deaths in clashes with the police - the Republican billionaire was the subject of a historic decision on the part of Twitter and Facebook.
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The former has decided to withdraw some of his tweets that are a little too conciliatory with the authors of the chaos in Congress, as well as a maligned video, which Twitter considers "repeated and serious violations of (the) civic integrity policy" of his network, before blocking his account for 12 hours, to restore it once the deadline has passed.
The sanction of Facebook is even heavier: its boss Mark Zuckerberg announced the suspension of Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts "indefinitely and at least for the next two weeks", that is to say until the inauguration ceremony allowing Joe Biden to gain power.
With this explanation: "We believe that allowing the president to continue to use our services during this period poses too great risks".
YouTube followed suit by deleting a video the president posted on his channel.
Other platforms like Snapchat have also temporarily locked their accounts.
A plausible scenario
The outgoing president's repeated attacks on his opponent on social media have also annoyed former first lady Michelle Obama, who in a statement released Thursday called for Donald Trump to be banned for life from Twitter and Facebook.
"Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop allowing this monstrous behavior - and to go even further than they have already done, by permanently banning this man from their platforms and putting in place policies to prevent their technology from being used by the country's rulers to fuel an insurgency, ”she wrote.
Like all of you, I've been feeling so many emotions since yesterday.
I tried to put my thoughts down here: pic.twitter.com/9xzRvrpk7y
- Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) January 7, 2021
Is it possible ?
According to the conditions of use of these platforms, this scenario is indeed quite plausible.
It should be remembered that these measures, for the moment temporary, are part of a specific context.
Since the beginning of the mandate of the former real estate mogul, calls from public figures and Internet users have multiplied to the two social networks so that the latter limit the reach of certain messages from Donald Trump propagating "fake news" and fueling some conspiracy theories.
Twitter posts Trump's post accusing Democrats of "stealing" election # AFP #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/ZLfbskDlEv
- Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) November 4, 2020
Twitter reacted by deploying an increasingly massive strike force, to the point of affixing, after the presidential campaign, a message under a tweet from the president criticizing the result of the election ("Some or all of the content shared in this tweet is disputed and likely to be misleading about an election or other civic process ”).
A "permanent suspension" possible on Twitter
On its site, Twitter mentions the possibility of "suspending" an account, adding that this can be done "permanently", "if we receive a report indicating that it violates our rules relating to inappropriate behavior".
Among these behaviors we find those which would be linked to “an apology for violence” or a call to commit an act of violence, terrorist threats, or violent extremism or even “hateful conduct” in particular.
In a statement released in October, just before the US elections, Twitter also clarifies its policy "on civic integrity", and condemns the use of its services "for the purpose of manipulating elections or interfering in elections. or other civic processes ”.
The network adds that a "permanent suspension" is possible "in the event of serious or repeated violations of this policy".
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"Any future violation of Twitter rules, including our policies on civic integrity or violent threats, will result in the permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account," confirms this Friday with the Parisian a spokesperson for the social network.
And no question of seeing the future ex-president appear again with a new avatar.
In the event of permanent ban, "the offender can not create any new account", indicates Twitter, about this sanction which remains "the most severe".
What other accounts may have been the subject of such treatment so far?
"Unfortunately, we cannot give examples, because we do not comment on the individual accounts", answers only his spokesperson.
A ban also allowed on Facebook
Facebook has, for its part, already almost taken the plunge, brandishing the threat of blocking the president's account for an indefinite period.
The American social network stipulates in its rules that in the event of a violation of “community standards”, a range of sanctions is possible, depending on the reason for the violation, its severity, as well as the profile of the Internet user.
In a situation of recurrence, the latter logically risks much more.
This ranges, in fact, from the removal of the criticized content to the total ban from the platform, including the suspension for 30 days of certain features, such as the possibility of posting on your wall or in comments, or of sharing content. .
A next deviation from Donald Trump could therefore lead to this ban that the president seems to fear.
Especially since he will then, as on Twitter, not have the leisure to recreate a new account, in which case, the latter will also be suspended.
The same goes for the support pages for Donald Trump, which, too, would then risk being restricted, if the former Republican candidate completely disappears from the platform.
Dieudonné, Alain Soral or terrorist organizations
If a president of a state has never, to date, been the subject of such sanctions, other organizations or public figures have been banned, the algorithms having cleaned up against terrorist organizations and carriers. of hate speech online.
Thus, Twitter or Facebook accounts linked to Daesh are regularly closed.
In France, far-right personalities, such as Hervé Ryssen, Alain Soral (as well as the page of his site Equality and reconciliation) - two channels of which were also deleted by YouTube - or the organization Génération Identitaire have already views exclude from Mark Zuckerberg's network.
In August, the latter also announced that he had permanently banned the controversial comedian Dieudonné, whose channel was also deleted on YouTube.
“Individuals and organizations who attack others on the basis of who they are have no place on Facebook or Instagram,” he said in reference to “content mocking victims of Shoah ”and“ dehumanizing terms against the Jews ”.
"Banning a person permanently from our services is a decision that we always weigh carefully," said a spokesperson.