What impact will Facebook's Trump suspension have?
Donald Trump will remain blocked on Facebook for the time being, the company's Oversight Board announced on Wednesday. The suspension, which has been in place since the storming of the Capitol, is to be reviewed within the next six months. Facebook accused the ex-president of inciting violence. Trump has now launched his own blog - and commentators doubt that the Facebook ban will be able to stop him.
Bans won't help
What matters now is how journalists respond, Polityka believes:
“The publication of the former president's content on the Internet means that journalists have to decide what to do with it. If they continue to check the blog and comment on Trump's entries, in the long run it won't matter which platform Trump writes on. His views and opinions will continue to be alive on the Internet. No ban can prevent that.”
Let the tirades fizzle out
Dagens Nyheter, by contrast, says the politicians must now take matters into their own hands:
“Whatever one may think of Trump, it is problematic that the dominant platform for exchange of opinions (among other things) has the power to completely silence leading politicians. The main responsibility for preventing Trump's hateful, mendacious rhetoric from gaining political traction lies with his opponents, not the big Internet companies. If politicians like Joe Biden continue to do their jobs and play fair with their opponents, there will be less need for figures like Trump. Then he'll be left alone with his tantrums and pompous posts, a bad actor who doesn't realise that his play is over and the audience has already left.”
Attack on freedom of speech
The Daily Telegraph finds the fact that Donald Trump is also currently blocked on Youtube and Twitter worrying:
“That state of affairs will do nothing to dampen fears that free speech is now in the hands of a small group of left wing social justice warriors based in California's Silicon Valley. ... For those who support freedom of speech and a free media, the signs are ominous. Whatever you think of Trump, in a world where the former most powerful man on the planet can effectively be silenced even though he has not been found guilty of any crime, it goes without saying that no voice is safe.”