Ever since Twitter suspended the account of US President Donald Trump, there have been many calls for big tech social media platforms to apply the same scrutiny to foreign leaders, such as Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei. This talking point posits that while Trump and others might reasonably be suspended by social media giants, it appears hypocritical that they don’t apply the same standards to others abroad. The reasons for this are multi-layered.
First of all, social media giants' application of their own standards appears to be rapidly changing and arbitrary. The claim that various accounts violated their rules – such as of inciting violence, spreading misleading information or against hate speech – may be true, just as it may speak to how opaque these guidelines really are.
Because big tech giants have never been regulated, they are not like other industries. There is no transparent explanation as to why a social media giant banned one account or another. It doesn’t have to provide that to regulators or to customers and users. It doesn’t have to back up the user information, or provide them an archive of their tweets or posts. while they are private companies, they are not like other industries, such as automobile manufacturers, airlines or television stations, that might be regulated in some way.
The arbitrary nature of social media suspensions, bans and internal rules means that for all intents and purposes, companies can do what they want on a whim. Often, they do cave to social, political or economic pressure. For instance, social media companies sought to close down accounts that support terrorism and extremism after the rise of ISIS in 2014. By 2018, Twitter had removed more than a million pro-terrorist accounts. Studies show that there had been more than 17 million pro-ISIS tweets. READ MORE
