Facebook Blocks President Trump from Its Platform as Protestors Storm Capitol Hill

Following the recent riot where a wave of pro-Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the President will now be blocked from the social media platform.

In light of the presidential election opposing Trump and Biden, a large wave of white American activists and Trump supporters have angrily taken Capitol Hill under siege. US’ Capitol Hill was vandalized and police barricades were breached, as the rioters invaded Washington, preaching their support of Trump.

Following the political violence, Zuckerberg has decided to restrict Trump from using Facebook, as many of his posts have been criticized as a gateway to “incite insurrection against a democratically elected government.”

Trump has previously resorted to social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to express his ideas, as he has said that media newspaper outlets were too censored for his liking. Ironically, although he uses their services, Trump has also blasted Facebook and Twitter, saying that Big Tech has conspired to rig the presidential election.

Politicians unhappy with Twitter and Facebook censorship

Previously, Twitter and Facebook were called to testify in front of the US Judiciary Committee, as explanations were demanded of Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook’s Zuckerberg for the way political posts were handled on their platforms during the elections.

The move of the tech giants to censor both Republicans and Democratics had served to infuriate both parties, who called on a reform of Section 230.  This section protects online platform hosts like Facebook and Twitter from being held accountable for content that social media users upload.

Both the Twitter CEO and Facebook’s Zuckerberg were open to the idea of amending Section 230. However, they said that the social media platforms were not to be treated as publishers or as traditional media websites. Both tech moguls stood by their company’s action, with Zuckerberg asserting,“We strengthened our enforcement against conspiracy networks and other groups to help prevent them from using our platform to organize violence or civil unrest in the period after the election.”

Is blockchain the answer to misinformation and centralized power?

The congressional hearing comes at a time when US authorities and global legislations have increasingly attempted to curb the monopoly of tech giants, namely the Big Tech – Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple. Antitrust hearings have been conducted with US Capitol Hill to address the ways in which Big Tech leveraged their power to thwart competitive companies in the tech industry.

With the rise in power of these tech corporate giants, the question of whether decentralization is the answer has come to light. With blockchain technology, information is regulated by everyone using the chain, and there is no central power. As the concentration of power on distributed ledger technology is technologically impossible, blockchain may provide more security in an environment where the trust in centralized authorities is questioned.

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