Why Trump should not be banned from social media


May 6, 2021
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Earlier this year, I participated in an Intelligence2+, debate arguing against the motion ‘Big Tech was right to de-platform Trump’. This was my opening argument.

Following yesterday’s decision from the Facebook Oversight Board to permanently ban the former president from the platform, it seems relevant once again. Excerpt below:

By going down this path [liberals] are granting the greatest corporate power in history, Big Tech, even more supra-governmental power than it had. But worse than this, they are unwittingly completing the destruction they think Donald Trump started: undermining the framework of liberal democracy and pushing us back towards a world where the powerful rule without regard for due process.

This was naked censorship: it involved no law courts and no democratic vote. It’s dangerous and no true liberal should support it. It might feel good now if your team has the upper hand but the principle of censoring your opponents is going to come back to haunt you. Next time it won’t be your friends who control the media platforms, it will be your enemies.

- Freddie Sayers, Intelligence Squared

 


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