"X" is a social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Anyone who was around during the 2016 and 2020 elections will likely remember how prevalent Donald Trump was on the platform. According to Madhani and Colvin (2021), Trump's account has posted over 57,000 times since its creation. Posts from his account largely included critiques of other candidates, politicians, and celebrities. No one other than his family was safe from his attacks. During the impeachment proceedings, when he was particularly riled up, it was said that he made more than 100 posts in a day. Besides spreading criticisms, he also spread misleading or false information to his followers. According to Madhani and Colvin (2021), the platform flagged over 470 posts made by Trump for misinformation.
On January 6th, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Since the objective of the attack "was to prevent a legitimate president-elect from assuming office, the attack was widely regarded as an insurrection" (Duignan, 2024). Many believe that Donald Trump instigated his followers to storm the capitol. On the platform "X," President Trump shared his belief that the election was rigged and stolen, and many of his followers shared this belief. He was unwilling to step away from the presidency because he believed it was rightfully his. On the day of the insurrection, President Trump gave a speech at the Ellipse in which he told his supporters that they needed to "fight like hell" or else they were "not going to have a country anymore" (Naylor, 2021).
Due to the language of his social media posts and the January 6th speech, it's easy to understand why many believe he encouraged the insurrection. Two days after the attack, X made a statement explaining their decision to suspend Donald Trump's account. Under their Glorification of Violence policy, they flagged two posts of his and encouraged users to read them in the context of the attack. These are the two posts in question, and they were posted just two days after the attack:
- "The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!"
- "To those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th."
According to X (2021), many of his followers received the second statement as confirmation that the election was illegitimate. It also implied to those who were considering violent acts that the Inauguration would be a "safe" target for them as Trump wouldn't be there to potentially be harmed if there were to be violent action. In regards to the first post, his use of "American Patriots" to describe his supporters could be taken as a show of support for the acts committed at the U.S. Capitol. It's important to note as well that following the January 6th attack, there were plans for future armed attacks that were being discussed on and off of the platform, so these posts from Trump could be taken as encouragement to follow through with those plans. X's official closing statement reads, "our determination is that the two Tweets above are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so." (X, 2021)
Though his suspension was supposed to be permanent, Elon Musk bought the platform and changed many rules. Musk shared a poll to X users asking them to vote yes or no on whether Donald Trump's account should be restored. The poll ended with 51.9% voting yes; thus, his account was restored.
Sources:
Madhani, A. & Colvin, J. (2021). Farewell, @realDonaldTrump: Looking back at the Twitter account's provocative history. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/01/08/president-donald-trump-twitter-account-history/6607069002/
Duignan, B. (2024). January 6 U.S. Capitol attack. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/January-6-U-S-Capitol-attack
Naylor, B. (2021). Read Trump's Jan. 6 Speech, A Key Part Of Imeapchment Trial. npr. https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-speech-a-key-part-of-impeachment-trial
X. (2021). Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump. X Blog. https://blog.x.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension
Misinformation is probably amongst politics since the foundation of the U.S. and its first president. Not to say it should be acceptable, just expected. One can view politics as a game encompassing players possessing the necessary capital to even consider getting involved. Every organized sport has its fair share of cheating. Spreading misinformation in favor of one candidate over another is tantamount to doing whatever it takes to win. The idea that mass media networks are the gatekeepers of democracy is frightening as networks have their own agenda. Although social media platforms like X have policies to address dangerous behavior, their main goal is to generate revenue. Thus, they tolerate bad behavior to a certain point in lieu of engaging in censorship. Even though X is not complicit in any scheme to avert the election certification, there is enough blame to go around for the J6 insurrection.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great topic to blog about. I think Twitter suspending Trump's account for the tweets above does mark concerns for freedom of speech. Misinformation is dangerous to democracy but censorship is even worse. I imagine that's why 51% of people wanted to reinstate Trump's account; however, that behavior is no way for a sitting president to use the media.
ReplyDeleteTrump's use of Twitter to communicate with the people is smart, yet is actually insane. He literally fired his Secretary of State via Twitter, so his followers knew before the SoS did.