Politics

Mark Cuban Says Banning Trump Was ‘Just The Right Thing To Do’

(Photo by Katharine Lotze/Getty Images)

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
Font Size:

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said banning former President Donald Trump from social media was “the right thing to do” in an interview with The Daily Beast released Thursday.

“[If] someone is using your product to do something really bad, you stop selling them the product,” Cuban said discussing social media companies like Facebook and Twitter banning Trump. “If I realized that something I sold was being used for something that was nefarious or wrong, I would stop it. How is this any different? Putting aside the TOS, it’s just the right thing to do.”

Trump was banned from Facebook and Twitter following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Twitter first issued a temporary suspension before upgrading to a permanent suspension after alleging Trump incited or justified violence at the Capitol. (RELATED: Trump Congratulates Nigeria For Banning Twitter, Says ‘More COUNTRIES Should Ban Twitter And Facebook’)

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said in a statement.

Facebook and Instagram blocked Trump indefinitely, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg alleging Trump used the platform to “incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.”

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 28: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office before signing an executive order related to regulating social media on May 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump's executive order could lead to attempts to punish companies such as Twitter and Google for attempting to point out factual inconsistencies in social media posts by politicians. (Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 28: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office before signing an executive order related to regulating social media on May 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

Facebook’s oversight board upheld the company’s decision to ban Trump in May.

“The Board found that, in maintaining an unfounded narrative of electoral fraud and persistent calls to action, Mr. Trump created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible,” the board said in a statement. The board found, however, a permanent ban was inappropriate and Facebook must set a “proportionate response that is consistent with the rules that are applied to other users of the platform.”

Facebook announced in June Trump would be suspended for an additional two years due to the “gravity of the circumstances” that led to his initial suspension.

A May poll by Rasmussen found 48% of voters surveyed opposed Facebook’s ban. Another poll from Rasmussen found more than half of voters believed Twitter and Facebook are politically biased. Will Chamberlain, senior counsel at the Internet Accountability Project, said free speech must be protected across all platforms, including private companies.

“The public square has moved to the internet and been privatized by Facebook and Twitter. The First Amendment protects you from government censorship, but to make the American commitment to free speech meaningful, your right to speak on Facebook and Twitter must be protected also,” Chamberlain said.

“When Facebook and Twitter feel so powerful that they can ban the sitting President of the United States, a sword of Damocles is hanging over every conservative’s right to speak their mind in public. It doesn’t have to be that way. Americans should have the same right to speak on Facebook and Twitter that they do in a public park; if their speech is lawful, it should not be censored.”

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel