It’s a really complicated ethical dilemma, but ultimately I’m afraid Trump has been made into a digital martyr for free speech and this will produce many, many negative consequences going forward.
What is a lot less complicated is that we should all be very concerned about a few tech oligarchs having such extraordinary power over our ability to communicate with each other. To paraphrase Hitchens: we are fashioning all kinds of rods for own backs.
To be clear: if what Trump did and inspired was so bad, which I believe it absolutely was, he should face political and legal consequences. Tech oligarchs should not be the arbiters of right and wrong in our public sphere.
I should say they should not be the *whimsical* arbiters. What are the actual principles? They had Erdogan arguably inciting violence in France two months ago with zero consequences. If they are arbiters of right and wrong, Trump should have been banned years ago.
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