In the past two days, large AMERICAN social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have suddenly collectively announced the permanent ban of US President Trump's account.
Even trump's post of protest using the official account of the US president after being blocked was quickly deleted.
This scene also greatly stimulated a large number of Trump supporters, who said that this was a vicious violation of free speech.
Among them, the following post, published by Trump's son Trump Jr., accusing the US social networking company of blocking his father's account, has now received more than 80,000 likes and has been forwarded by a large number of Trump supporters.
"We are already living in the end of 1984 as described by George Orwell," he wrote, "and there is no longer any freedom of speech in America. . . . . . it's crazy!" ”
A pro-Trump Conservative NetworkErvision with 2.8 million followers called twitter and other social networking sites "fascism" in a 23,000-like post.
"Twitter is engaging in fascism, and in order to protest this kind of behavior, I will close my Twitter account and move to other platforms," he wrote.
Another pro-Trump American conservative network public also mentioned China in his post accusing the matter: "Leave China alone, Trump's social media accounts have been blocked, and censorship is real in the United States!" ”
Some conservative Politicians in the United States who support Trump are also extremely unhappy with the banning of Trump's account. Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, for example, wrote in a 29,000-like post: "Twitter's blocking of President Trump is grossly wrong. ”
He added that "when Iran's top leader can post and Trump can't, it already says what's going on with those who run Twitter platforms."
The same view is held by Nicky Haley, the former U.S. representative to the United Nations. But she also mentions China:
"Shutting the mouths of others, and the mouth of the President of the United States, should be what should happen to China, not the United States."
In addition to the United States, Trump supporters in other Western countries are also currently complaining about Trump's ban. A pro-Trump Swedish journalist posted two times in a row, saying that the ban on Trump's social media accounts showed that public censorship on the Internet "has reached a dystopian level" and that "from tonight onwards, (George Orwellian) 1984 officially arrived."
There are also some who claim not to "dislike Trump", but the British and American right-wing conservative networks that have the same political stance as Trump have also expressed their opposition to the banning of Trump, saying that even if you hate Trump, twitter and other large network technology companies can arbitrarily block the US president's account has opened a "dangerous precedent" that should cause people to worry and resist.
Of course, there are also many people on the Us Internet who believe that the ban on Trump has nothing to do with freedom of speech, and these people are also professors and scholars at well-known universities in the United States and media people in the mainstream media.
For example, in the picture below, the university of California law and political science professor posted:
"The public's call for private companies to weed out speech that would destroy American democracy is not censorship, but patriotism."
A Harvard professor also said that Trump and his supporters are terrorists, so there is nothing wrong with social platforms monitoring and removing these extremist voices.
A reporter from the new York Times, a major major newspaper in the United States, said that all those who shouted on Twitter that banning Trump's account were infringing on freedom of speech were.
Some American netizens who support the banning of Trump also said: Twitter is a platform built by a private company, so other companies have the freedom to dispose of accounts that violate the rules.
In addition, judging from the mainstream media reports on this matter such as CNN in the United States, these media have also revealed a tendency to believe that Trump's banning is appropriate and necessary in the report. For example, CNN interviewed and listed a number of voices that were very recognizable for banning Trump's account in the report.
However, although the mainstream media in the United States and scholars at well-known universities are very supportive of banning Trump and believe that this is not a "violation of freedom of speech", Geng Zhige further observed that Trump's supporters are not just dissatisfied with Trump's "deprivation of freedom of speech".
The latest text released by the pro-Trump right-wing conservative writer in the United States shows quite clearly what their grievances really are:
"In the last year, the left has made all of this the norm: forced closures of businesses, forced closures of churches, forced masks on people, forced censorship of every citizen – and now even world leaders. It's not for your safety, fools. Wake up, or it'll be too late."
Obviously, the post, which has now garnered more than 90,000 likes and has been heavily forwarded among Trump supporters, reflects not dissatisfaction with Trump's personal plight, but a strong group anxiety: fear of changing one's lifestyle, fear of the denial of the values one believes in, and fear of the channels and voices through which one expresses and vent one's grievances are obliterated.
But this anxiety is not caused by Trump, but caused by the tearing and antagonism of values within American society over the past few years due to changes in economic structure. Mainstream public opinion, politics, and academic elites in the United States have always believed that globalization and pluralism can make the United States strong, but in fact, there are a large number of people in American society who have not profited in the process, but have lost their original interests.
This is also why Trump won the US presidential election more than 4 years ago unexpectedly, because these "frustrated people" want to resist this trend, so they will let Trump, a "deviant" person, "decide" for them.
In other words, Trump is not a "cause," but an "effect."
Pictured is Reuters' previous report that Trump supporters attended campaign rallies without masks
As a result, everything trump has been treated so far, whether it was the previous "Russiagate" investigation or the current blocking of his social media accounts, in the eyes of the tens of millions of supporters who voted for him president 4 years ago and today, is not aimed at him alone, but against all of them, and is a "violation", "persecution" and "blocking" of tens of millions of Americans.
And when Trump, who is already "noble" president, can be blocked so "easily" by Twitter, a tech company, it will further exacerbate their anxiety, dissatisfaction and antagonism, as the post above shows — "even world leaders are censored by them."
However, mainstream public opinion in the United States has not tried to calm the anger of these people and enlighten them, but instead childishly believes that as long as Trump is "shut", his supporters are described as "thugs", and a bunch of extremely negative labels are attached, all problems can be solved and frightened off. This is not at all treating these Trump supporters as compatriots and people, but as "scum" in Hillary's mouth in 2016.
No wonder some Trump supporters are saying things like, "Wait and see, there will be life-changing things in the next few hours and days," "The patriot revolution is coming," and "Even without social networks, we patriots can organize ourselves against tyranny in the revolution."
Source: Global Times