Written by 17:55 Media

Trump, Facebook and the privatisation of rights: here are the risks

The Facebook oversight board is taking more time over the hot potato of the Trump ban. The biggest risk now is that the failure of a public response could leave a huge vacuum, which would be filled by private individuals and their more or less questionable initiatives.

di Rocco Panetta

Facebook’s Oversight Board can’t make up its mind about the social networking site’s right to ban President Donald Trump, and today it ordered a six-month postponement. No surprises there. Too complicated; too great a responsibility.

The images of the storming of the US Capitol are still vivid in our minds: a river of protesters thronged Capitol Hill, bursting into the US House of Representatives and Senate, in the days of the delicate handover of power during the election of the 46th President of the United States. All this was staged while, not far from those streets, outgoing President Donald J. Trump was slow to distance himself and took part in the event by supporting the crowd via his social media channels, with tweets and videos.

The pages of contemporary history that followed that moment were steeped in accusations and investigations that led to the second impeachment proceedings by Congress against the outgoing President: a procedure that finds its foundations in the American Constitution and its raison d’être in safeguarding the democratic order and republican institutions.

Continue reading the article on Agenda Digitale‘s website.

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