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Twitter’s decision to permanently suspend Donald Trump from its platform could justify tightening regulation for social media companies, a cabinet minister suggested.
Matt Hancock said the move showed Twitter “making editorial decisions” and by implication accepting that social media companies are not just platforms.
As a former culture secretary, Hancock said this raised important questions about how social media companies are regulated, although he accepted that this was not part of his current portfolio as health secretary.
Twitter announced on Friday that it would permanently suspend the Twitter account of the president of the United States, which had 88 million followers, “due to the risk of further incitement to violence.” In a declaration To justify its decision, the company said the move was sparked by two tweets from the president that violated his policy of glorifying violence because it was “highly likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place on Capitol Hill. from the United States on January 6. ” 2021 “.
He argued that a reference by Trump to “American patriots” in a tweet was interpreted as evidence that he supported those who used violence on Capitol Hill, and said that his tweet announcing that he would not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration was seen. by his supporters as a confirmation. the choice was rigged.
Earlier in the week, Facebook also banned Trump from posting to its platforms, at least until Biden’s inauguration.
In an interview on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Hancock said that this meant that “social media platforms are making editorial decisions, and that’s a very important question because it then raises questions about their editorial judgments and how they are regulated.” .
Traditional publishers have long complained that by arguing that they are platforms and not publishers, social media companies have been able to evade the legal obligations placed on organizations such as news websites that have much less financial clout or influence.
In a 2019 report, the Commons culture committee said: “Social media companies cannot hide behind the claim of being merely a ‘platform’ and maintain that they have no responsibility in regulating the content of their sites. “.
The committee said a new category should be created for social media companies, “which is not necessarily a ‘platform’ or an ‘publisher’.” He said this would imply that technology companies take “legal responsibility for content identified as harmful after it has been posted by users.”
In its response last month to the query on the white paper on online harm, the government said it would introduce new rules that would require social media companies to remove illegal and harmful content, and would give Ofcom the power to impose fines of up to £ 18 million, or 10.% turnover, whichever is greater, for non-compliance.
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