Donald Trump’s account remains blocked – but initially only temporarily. US political scientist Darrell West criticizes: Companies like Facebook have too much power.
Donald Trump’s Facebook account remains blocked. That was decided by a supervisory body today. However, this should be checked again in six months. Darrell West is a political scientist and deputy director of the Washington DC-based think tank “Brookings Institution” – he was following the decision.
ZDFheute: Were you surprised by the decision?
Darrell West: I was surprised it wasn’t a permanent decision. The temporary suspension that is currently in force has been confirmed. But the members of the panel have not decided whether Trump’s account should be permanently banned. You basically passed that decision back to Facebook.
I find that irresponsible. A powerful private company like Facebook shouldn’t decide something as significant as this.
Darrell West, Brookings Institution think tank
That affects the whole country. We need laws or guidelines for such situations.
ZDFheute: Why didn’t the supervisory authority make a permanent decision?
West: That has something to do with the composition of the board. Facebook has included very different people in this forum. That’s the problem. America is very polarized right now, liberals and conservatives don’t agree on anything. So if there is a wide range of views on this forum, it is not surprising that no consensus could be reached.
I think the flaw lies in the design of the body. The reason Facebook set up this forum was so that the company doesn’t have to make this decision itself.
ZDFheute: So you think private companies shouldn’t have so much influence when it comes to questions of freedom of expression?
West: Absolutely not. We don’t want a powerful company like Facebook to make a decision that is so important to the future of American politics.
Trump called for violence on January 6th. If you look at Facebook’s standards, Trump is clearly violating the prohibition of violence.
Darrell West, Brookings Institution think tank
ZDFheute: Not only Trump, many politicians worldwide use social media to reach a mass audience – Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, for example. How will the decision affect them?
West: World leaders should be aware that Facebook has the power to ban them from the platform if they incite violence. But even they do not know what punishment they must now expect. I just find this whole decision very problematic because it is not clear what politicians can and cannot do.
ZDFheute: And what does that mean for Twitter and other social media platforms?
West: Twitter has already decided to permanently ban Donald Trump’s account. And that is what the company wants to maintain, regardless of what Facebook decides. One can argue about whether Twitter did the right thing. But I think most people appreciate that a decision was made.
ZDFheute: Trump now has his own website on which he shares statements, a kind of blog. Isn’t that even more problematic because there is no longer a platform that monitors what he writes there?
West: I’m not worried about a Trump website or a Trump blog. This does not give him the reach he had on Twitter or Facebook. The other benefit of Facebook is the ability to make money from it. Trump won’t be able to do that on his own blog. Fewer people will pay attention. And Trump won’t be able to monetize his content in the same way.
