Trump Indefinitely Banned From Facebook & Grounded by Twitter
Donald Trump’s social media accounts are being suspended or taken down one by one following his incitement of violence and sedition at the US Capital.
Today Facebook implemented an indefinite ban on Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. This follows yesterday’s 24 hour suspension by Facebook after removal of some of Donald Trump’s Facebook posts casting doubt on the election and praising his supporters. While Twitter also suspended his account yesterday for 12 hours after removing some congratulatory posts about the thugs who stormed the Capital. YouTube also removed a video where Trump praised the mobs who stormed Congress. This is more than flagging posts, this is now removal of posts by Trump along with a suspension on multiple platforms! Yesterday I wrote that it’s not hard to see what is coming and I won’t be surprised of Twitter follows suit with an indefinite (maybe permanent) ban of Donald Trump on that platform as well.
I predicted this would happen in a post a few months ago after Twitter and Facebook started to gradually reign in or flag Trump’s election fraud claims or pandemic lies. IMO it was just a matter of time he would get a suspension. And I am betting he will take it to the next level (eventually) and get permanently banned from Twitter (and maybe other platforms)!
“President Trump’s preferred means of public communication — Twitter — on Wednesday put him on notice: If he does not stop breaking the platform’s rules, he will be permanently banned.” (NPR)
This should also be a MASSIVE wake-up call to all the dominant social-media platforms which played a role in enabling this insurrection at the US Capitol. A clear demonstration of how their intentionally psychologically manipulative and exploitative algorithms originally designed to (harmlessly) maximise profit, can also be leveraged by a narcissistic psychopath with enough koo-koo followers and political sycophants to massively disrupt social and political stability. Not to mention exacerbate a global pandemic and kill millions of US citizens unnecessarily through the spread of misinformation, inaction and a botched response.
“Wednesday’s horrific attach is a clear example of what happens when unregulated social media platforms make it impossible for us to see the same set of facts and come to consensus on shared truth”. (Center for Humane Technology)
At this point IMO ALL social-media platforms have a moral obligation to curtail this lunatic’s psychotic behaviour and delusional seditious words which are spreading exponentially on their platforms (in many ways by design), and inciting people to violence and domestic terrorism. Trump may be an amoral malignant narcissistic and psychopath, but he is an accidental genius in how he has leveraged the mechanics of social-media and “cloud protesting” to forge a joint narrative and collective identity among his followers which he can then exploit and incite as he sees fit.
“If an individual in a position of political power is a psychopath, he or she can create an epidemic of psychopathology in people who are not, essentially, psychopathic”.~ Andrzej Lobaczewski — Polish Psychiatrist.
The ban is only 12 hours but it will absolutely enrage Trump. He will be apoplectic (inside and maybe to his closest advisers/family, outside as well). But as satisfying and cathartic as 12 hours of reprieve from Trump’s Tweets will feel to the rest of us, it might push him to catastrophic, even global levels of sociopathic and psychopathic destruction that we may all regret.
Think about it. Trump has gone through a couple months of massive political and egoic losses (dwindling his narcissistic supply) which began when he lost the Presidential election the FIRST time in November. He then lost 59 out of 60 election challenges in succession with fraudulent or baseless court cases being thrown out as he tried to overthrow the election. When you consider how Trump’s rhetoric and behaviours have been escalating since November, he appears to be cracking under the weight of all these loses - which are likely to continue. Not to mention the Republicans have lost both the House and the Senate now — with the Presidency, a trifecta of political losses! And earlier today the Chief Loyal Republican Sycophant — Mitch McConnell — absolutely railed against Trump in the biggest rebuke from the Republican Party so far. And later tonight or tomorrow, the Electoral College Votes will certify Joe Biden as the next President and Kamala Harris as the next Vice-President- ANOTHER LOSS.
And now Trump’s most important tool and megaphone for engaging, feeding and inciting his throngs of right-wing, gun-toting followers (and source of narcissistic supply, Twitter/Facebook), has just been taken away from him for 12/24 hours!
Trump has just been grounded by Jack Dorsey & Mark Zuckerberg!
IMO Trump is an amoral sociopath rapidly being consumed by a growing narcissistic rage the likes of which the world has never seen. Think about this possible nightmare scenario. Trump has been trying to pick a fight with Iran for some time. Recently Trump’s Generals had to squash his desire to bomb Iran. But now, a war with Iran would solve many of Trump’s biggest concerns. First, a war with Iran would draw the media’s negative attention away from him onto something else. Second, a war with Iran would leave the incoming Biden Administration with an even greater shit-show of domestic and International crisis. Third, no doubt he has a large enough following of Right-Wing Hawk’s who would fall right in line with an attack on Iran, which would regain some of Trump’s narcissistic supply.
And with Pence just having been involved with calling in the National Guard to deal with Washington (rather than the Commander in Chief), maybe his most inner circle is actually caving to the realisation their boss is a dangerous lunatic unfit for office! Who knows, maybe the rumours that calls for Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment are increasing, are actually closer to reality than we think and maybe the tipping point will be when Trump tries again to start a war with Iran?
Today Donald Trump reached well above his usual levels of psychotic and dangerous behaviour and it’s not likely to end any time soon. We can all see it — Trump’s dangerous, irrational even psychotic behaviours — getting worse. All of America and Democracy in general around the world has also been severely tarnished by this lunatic. But the walls, supports and enablers around Trump appear to be slowly crumbling. So long as his Generals keep him from starting a war, and those most senior in the Administration continue to abandon him, maybe the damage won’t get any worse. One can only hope. But hey, it still feels INCREDIBLE just imagining the torture Trump must be going through right now not being able to directly vent to his millions of loyal (might I say deluded) Twitter/Facebook followers!
I will still hope and pray things don’t get any worse for our Southern Neighbours. But I can’t imagine the next few weeks until January 20th to be anything less than entertaining!
Update (December 8 2021):
Barely 48 hours after writing this post, the fallout from the Trump-incited violent and fascist insurrection at the US Capitol is growing. Over 80 arrests and dozens of charges have been laid against members of the mob, including one Virginia State Lawmaker (Derrick Evans) who actually live-streamed from the attack on the Capitol! There are also increasing calls for enacting the 25th Amendment to remove the President from office. And impeachment articles have already been drafted and could be filed as soon as next week.
Donald Trump’s social-media infrastructure and right-wing megaphone are also rapidly being dismantled and silenced. Twitter has now permanently suspended Donald Trump’s account along with other high-ranking Trump allies like Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell. Google has also removed the far-right conservative social-media app called Parler while Apple is threatening to do the same thing.
If there is anything good to come out of these tragic and historical events, at the very least being forced to take a closer look at how these social-media platforms can be exploited by dangerously unbalanced but powerful people, may hopefully lead to regulatory and technical changes which will benefit all of us. Exactly how these regulations will work and what these “technical” (algorithmic and content moderation) changes will look like is still to be determined. But at least we are now at the point where we (and hopefully the massive corporations behind the platforms) can no longer ignore the impact of these profit-driven and psychologically manipulative technologies.
