Just Breaking: Twitter just issued an lockout on President Trump's account for twelve hours after his series of false tweets about the election and lies led to the siege on the Capitol after Trump mobs turned into insurrectionists and attempted to keep Trump in office for another term (The Guardian). The question is shouldn't have Twitter done this years ago? Lies are that lies. Conspiracy theories are just that: conspiracy theories. So Twitter should have marked them as such right from the beginning and clamp down this kind of tweets that all built up to what happened today.
I am a daily Twitter user and for the most part, Twitter works great for me. I don't use Facebook anymore because it's worse than the swamp that Trump has created for himself and his cronies because Facebook has enabled the fringes of Trump supporters to thrive while Facebook monetizes off them to the detriment of the republic. Twitter has has well but in my book, it's not as bad as Facebook. But Twitter has a lot to answer for.
I do think that the new Congress should have a bipartisan commission to address social media and how toxic it can get if left unchecked or allowed to police itself. I respect and support the first amendment but right now, the kind of tweets coming out of Trump and his fringe supporters is keeping facts from reaching people. Facts and conspiracy theories and lies should not be out there as if allowing users decide on what they believe.
It will not be easy. So far, the congressional hearings in the last couple of years yielded nothing other than grandstanding by politicians (mostly Trump minions) that really does not address how social media can be regulated.
And this is just the issues with toxic tweets for lies and falsehoods. Privacy is still front and center for many users like myself.
I'm glad Trump has been given a time-out that really should have came earlier. But Twitter has its share of responsibility for this dark chapter in hour history.
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