Republicans on Wednesday, May 5, escalated their threats to clamp down on tech giants after Facebook’s oversight board upheld the company’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, reported CNBC.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Republican – California) vowed to “rein in big tech power over our speech,” while other GOP lawmakers and allies of Trump went further.
“It is time that we break up big tech, not just regulate them,” Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows said on Fox News after the board issued its ruling.
Trump, who is out of office but remains a dominant presence in Republican politics, declared in a statement that “corrupt social media companies must pay a political price, and must never again be allowed to destroy and decimate our Electoral Process.”
The decision to uphold the former president’s suspensions — at least for now — could impact the GOP’s messaging as it aims to retake majority control of the House in 2022 on a platform of pro-Trump populism.
Trump was suspended from numerous online platforms in the wake of the deadly invasion of the Capitol on January 6 by a mob of his supporters. In its ruling Wednesday morning, the oversight board said that Trump “violated Facebook’s rules prohibiting praise or support of people engaged in violence” with his posts on that day — including when he addressed the rioters in a video by saying, “We love you. You’re very special.”
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