President Trump speaks up about recent social media censorship on Twitter.

President Donald Trump. 

President Trump had several tweets today about the recent censorship of many conservative voices on social media. These include Paul Joseph Watson, Diamond and Silk, James Woods and several others, most notably Alex Jones. These bans have caused considerable outrage among the right and it was only a matter of time before the President said something. Here are the tweets:

I am continuing to monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms. This is the United States of America — and we have what’s known as FREEDOM OF SPEECH! We are monitoring and watching, closely!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2019

The wonderful Diamond and Silk have been treated so horribly by Facebook. They work so hard and what has been done to them is very sad - and we’re looking into. It’s getting worse and worse for Conservatives on social media!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2019

So surprised to see Conservative thinkers like James Woods banned from Twitter, and Paul Watson banned from Facebook! https://t.co/eHX3Z5CMXb

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2019

What's my take on this? Well yesterday I said that all of these bans were unjustified and we shouldn't really ban people from social media unless they are committing crimes or if they are bots. It seems as though President Trump agrees with me. 

What can be done though? President Trump has several options. For one he could pull tax breaks that these social media companies get. Hitting them hard in the wallet might get them to change their tune very fast. He could also try and use other economic factors against the social media tech companies. This could include using anti-trust legislation to break the big tech companies up.

Another option would be to change the way the government treats social media. Right now, under the Communications Decency Act, social media companies are not considered publishers and are thus not liable for what their users post. However, there is a strong argument to be made that since Facebook, Twitter and Google are censoring many of their users they are in effect using editorial control over the platform. This means that they are publishers and can be sued or prosecuted for the actions of their users.

That would be an extreme solution because it would probably kill social media as we know it. The social media companies would have to pretty much ban everyone they could and even then they couldn't do anything about someone pulling off a New Zealand style live stream attack. The companies would have no choice but to let anyone post whatever they want without censoring different opinions and hope like hell that the government goes back to the old system.

Finally, President Trump could just find a way to nationalize the Tech giants. All of the major social media companies are heavily subsidized by the tax payer and run off of tech developed by the US government. The taxpayer already pays for social media, so why not nationalize it? Doing so would be hugely controversial though.

Will any of this happen though? I am not sure. I am positive that President Trump wants to do something about tech censorship and he has the support of most of the country. But does he have enough support in Congress to get this done? I doubt it. Not all of the GOP is on board despite the fact that tech censorship is a dagger pointed at their throat. And the Democrats know that this censorship always goes one way and it's in favor of them. Trump and the Executive Branch may have to act alone.

But I do hope that he acts and does more than just tweet. I said yesterday that there is a chance that my accounts could be banned as well. Facebook is apparently removing posts and threatening bans for people that merely post links and pictures of Alex Jones. I'm not a follower of Jones but I have used memes of him for trash talking purposes and I'm seriously concerned that my accounts might be on the chopping block next, just for having fun on social media. That needs to change and change now. Free speech isn't free if a huge corporation can arbitrarily decide that you can be exiled from polite society, be unable to make a living and be cut off from political activity just because they don't like what you have to say...