Big Tech Woes: Trump Threatens Twitter, Parler Files Lawsuit Against Amazon
Following his ban from major social media platforms Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, President Donald J. Trump threatened action against Big Tech. The platforms suspended Trump’s accounts following his tweets last Wednesday. Twitter said in a statement that his posts could be “mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence.” Twitter further determined that the language was in violation of its “Glorification of Violence Policy.”
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In a vague statement to reporters yesterday, Trump said, “I think that Big Tech is doing a horrible thing for our country and to our country. And I believe it’s going to be a catastrophic mistake for them. They’re dividing and divisive.”
He hinted at a “counter move” to Big Tech’s “actions” without sharing details of the counter move or the specific actions, according to a Reuters report. He also promised a “big announcement soon.”
It’s not the first time Trump has taken Big Tech to task. To wit:
- He vetoed a $740 billion defense bill because the bill did not overturn Section 230, a law that protects social media companies from liability over user-generated content
- He issued an executive order asking the Federal Communications Commission to review Section 230
- He threatened penalties against social media platforms he believed banned users or limited their speech based on their political views
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Meanwhile, social network Parler has threatened legal action against Amazon, filing an 18-page complaint in Seattle federal court. Amazon removed Parler from Amazon Web Services, its cloud-based server, after the platform took no action against threats of violence shared on the platform preceding Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol.
Parler claims the ban was to reduce competition for another one of Amazon’s customers, micro-blogging platform Twitter.
The lawsuit filing did not affect Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock price, which was up 0.21% at Tuesday’s close. Facebook stock (NASDAQ: FB), however, had dropped 2.24%, Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google, experienced a 1.07% drop and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) was also down 2.37%.
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