Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany since 2005, calls Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter ‘problematic’ as it gives social media bosses too much power.
The President was permanently banned from Twitter due to the “risk of further incitement of violence” after Trump supporters invaded the US Capitol.
A longstanding critic of Trump, Merkel said she was saddened and furious by the Capitol riots.
But Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said that “the chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the US president have been permanently blocked.”
He continued: “The fundamental right to freedom of opinion is a fundamental right of elementary importance.
“This fundamental right can be interfered with, but through the law and within the framework defined by the legislature, not according to the decision of the management of social media platforms.”
Seibert also said that even though social media bosses were right not to just ‘stand back,’ banning Trump was a step too far.
He also said that tech giants “bear great responsibility for political communication not being poisoned by hatred, by lies and by incitement to violence.”
Echoing Merkel’s spokesman, France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire also shared the same doubts about Trump’s Twitter ban.
He told France Inter radio that it shouldn’t be for the ‘digital oligarchy’ to regulate itself and said that such decisions should be taken not by American corporate bosses but by elected governments.
Don Jr said in a video message on Facebook that he had lost Twitter followers.
He added on Twitter: “The world is laughing at America & Mao, Lenin, & Stalin are smiling. Big tech is able to censor the President? Free speech is dead & controlled by leftist overlords.”
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