(Day 12 of 30 Days of Blogging)
Facebook, Twitter, and other media companies shouldn’t be applauded for finally deplatforming the American president after profiting off controversy for so many years.
It took up until the very day that the American president lost the election for TV outlets to finally start calling out his bullshit. It took an act of terrorism to force social media’s hand against the communities allowed to grow on their platforms.
Extremist users are engaged users, and businesses know that. These companies don’t stand for anything besides number of active users and ad impressions. They and their advertisers have way too much power. We’re seeing now that social media companies have the power to do what politics couldn’t do in 4 years, suppress Trump. This should be cause for some concern.
We can’t entrust media companies with the common good because their actions are moral-less and will always follow the shifting public sentiment which informs advertising. In the coming weeks some insurrectionists may be jailed and scapegoated. Maybe even the president himself. But don’t forget about the profiteering that helped create them and how we allow it to continue.