* German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Twitter’s ban on Trump “problematic,” and said that freedom of opinion is an essential right of “elementary significance.”
* Clement Beaune, the junior minister for European Union affairs, said he was “shocked” that a private company made this kind of decision. “This should be decided by citizens, not by a CEO,” he told Bloomberg TV on Monday.
* French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire condemned the move and said that tech giants were part of a digital oligarchy that was a threat to democracy.
* Manfred Weber, the leader of the center-right European People’s Party, called for a stricter regulatory approach. “We cannot leave it to American Big Tech to decide how we can or cannot discuss online.”
* Norway’s left-wing Labor Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre said that Big Tech censorship threatens political freedom around the world.
* Australia’s acting Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, said, “There’s been a lot of people who have said and done a lot of things on Twitter previously that haven’t received that sort of condemnation or indeed censorship. I’m not one who believes in that sort of censorship.”
* Mexican President Manuel López Obrador echoed his global counterparts, calling this kind of censorship by private companies “like an inquisition to manage public opinion.”
Notes From My Journal
Global Leaders Condemn Big Tech's Trump Ban Decision
Some surprising people have come to Trump’s support after he was banned from Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, Reddit, and Instagram.
* German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Twitter’s ban on Trump “problematic,” and said that freedom of opinion is an essential right of “elementary significance.”
* Clement Beaune, the junior minister for European Union affairs, said he was “shocked” that a private company made this kind of decision. “This should be decided by citizens, not by a CEO,” he told Bloomberg TV on Monday.
* French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire condemned the move and said that tech giants were part of a digital oligarchy that was a threat to democracy.
* Manfred Weber, the leader of the center-right European People’s Party, called for a stricter regulatory approach. “We cannot leave it to American Big Tech to decide how we can or cannot discuss online.”
* Norway’s left-wing Labor Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre said that Big Tech censorship threatens political freedom around the world.
* Australia’s acting Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, said, “There’s been a lot of people who have said and done a lot of things on Twitter previously that haven’t received that sort of condemnation or indeed censorship. I’m not one who believes in that sort of censorship.”
* Mexican President Manuel López Obrador echoed his global counterparts, calling this kind of censorship by private companies “like an inquisition to manage public opinion.”
* German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Twitter’s ban on Trump “problematic,” and said that freedom of opinion is an essential right of “elementary significance.”
* Clement Beaune, the junior minister for European Union affairs, said he was “shocked” that a private company made this kind of decision. “This should be decided by citizens, not by a CEO,” he told Bloomberg TV on Monday.
* French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire condemned the move and said that tech giants were part of a digital oligarchy that was a threat to democracy.
* Manfred Weber, the leader of the center-right European People’s Party, called for a stricter regulatory approach. “We cannot leave it to American Big Tech to decide how we can or cannot discuss online.”
* Norway’s left-wing Labor Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre said that Big Tech censorship threatens political freedom around the world.
* Australia’s acting Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, said, “There’s been a lot of people who have said and done a lot of things on Twitter previously that haven’t received that sort of condemnation or indeed censorship. I’m not one who believes in that sort of censorship.”
* Mexican President Manuel López Obrador echoed his global counterparts, calling this kind of censorship by private companies “like an inquisition to manage public opinion.”