Over the past weekend, social media giant Twitter was the center of an online storm over the company’s handling of political issues.
It all started with reports from President Donald Trump’s allies that Trump’s tweets had been hidden from the public. Some of Trump’s tweets had critical comments about mail-in ballots and were seen as potential issues of voter suppression. Trump’s allies were vocal in their criticism of Twitter for its alleged censorship of their leader’s opinion.
Meanwhile, Twitter had another issue to deal with when it began to “fact-check” some of the President’s tweets. Twitter labeled two Trump tweets as “potentially misleading”, regarding his claims about mail-in ballots. These action by Twitter quickly drew the ire of Trump supporters, who accused the company of showing political bias.
The President himself responded to Twitter’s actions by signing an executive order that sought to strip social media companies of legal protections that have protected them from lawsuits over what users post on their platforms. While it appears the order won’t have much legal basis, it certainly sent a signal to Twitter and other social media companies to back off their fact-checking and censorship.
Twitter tried to alleviate the situation by appealing to both sides. The company clarified its stance on censorship, stating that it does not engage in it, and it removed the “potentially misleading” labels from the tweets in question.
Shortly thereafter, Twitter began to suspend accounts that were connected to anti-lockdown protests around the world. The company said these accounts had violated the platform’s rules on “manipulating the conversation”.
The company’s handling of the situation has been seen by some as a move to mollify the unrest from Trump’s supporters. Regardless of the intention, it’s clear that Twitter had a very messy weekend. Political issues and opinions have been at the forefront of the online sphere, and it seems that companies like Twitter don’t know how to walk the fine line between allowing free expression and not upsetting any side too much. It looks like this debate is far from over.
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