BJP MP Tejasvi Surya faults Twitter ban on Trump

Bengaluru: BJP Member of Parliament and party's youth wing president Tejasvi Surya on Saturday faulted Twitter's move to permanently block US President Donald Trump's account in the wake of attack on Capitol recently. Describing it as a threat to democracy, the MP said "if they (Twitter) can do this to the President of the United States, they can do it to anyone".

The MP on his social media account, said, "India should review the intermediaries regulations at the earliest. This must be a wake-up call for all who don't yet understand the threat to our democracies by unregulated big tech companies. If they can do this to POTUS, they can do this to anyone. Sooner India reviews intermediaries regulations, better for our democracy".

The Twitter ban on Donald Trump came two days after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol, hoping to stop the certification of Joe Biden's election victory. "After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them, specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter, we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter said in a statement.

In another tweet, Surya said, "I don't want Twitter to ban anyone – Congress or BJP or anyone. Freedom of Expression (FoE) is sacrosanct. It cannot be curtailed whimsically by pvt big tech companies without accountability. But one certainly can't expect such statesmanship from a party that imposed Emergency."

According to the reports, Twitter called out two of Trump tweets from January 8 and then went on to explain the context of the ban. The first tweet said, "The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!(sic)." The second tweet said, "To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20."

Twitter said that both these tweets need to be seen in the "context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President's statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behaviour from this account in recent weeks." Twitter justified the Trump ban saying its language went against "our Glorification of Violence policy".

Twitter reportedly also picked up chatter on its platform of another possible attack being planned on the Capitol later this month, days before inauguration day on January 20.