President Donald Trump took aim at social media platforms early Saturday morning, criticizing them for suppressing and even attempting to silence conservative voices.
“They are closing down the opinions of many people on the Right …” he complained in a tweet.
Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others…….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
Trump’s tweets followed the news that Facebook had been caught outright blocking videos from the conservative organization PragerU and InfoWars’ Alex Jones had been banned across all platforms. Facebook has since apologized and restored access to the PragerU videos.
The president continued by claiming that censorship is “a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police,” pointing out the fact that although he has often complained about “Fake News,” he has never moved to silence his critics.
…..Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police. If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
Trump also pointed out the real problem with censorship: who chooses what will and will not be censored from public view?
….Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2018
He concluded with a call for free speech, saying, “Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!”
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