The alarming events at the Capitol on January 6 are believed to have been incited and fueled by speeches and social media posts given by the 45th President and various members of Congress. This resulted in the suspension of various social media accounts of elected officials who are believed to be and those who were confirmed to be affiliated with the attack on the U.S. Capitol. This included the President.
For a seasoned Twitter user, this is not a foreign concept. You hear about it all the time, someone’s tweets violated the Terms of Service and resulted in their account being suspended for 12 hours or more. Some may say Twitter has been more tolerant and lenient with certain elected officials, more specifically the 45th President. Since his bid at the presidency he has used racist and xenophobic rhetoric in all mediums. However it hasn’t stopped there, while in office the rhetoric escalated and after he incited an attack on the Capitol building, it led to the permanent suspension of his account from Twitter. Consequently, suspension of various of his social media accounts such as Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, TikTok, etc..
The suspension of such a visible account raised a lot of questions whether that violated the First Amendment and was it an attempt at censorship by tech companies. The short answer, it isn’t censorship. In fact, as part of joining social media platforms a person must accept the Terms of Service or Terms of Use. These Terms of Service in fact become legal binding when you accept the terms and proceed with account creation. The Terms of Service are composed of legal terminology that protect both the private company and the user, but many people do not read it in its entirety before accepting. Think of it as if you are rude and unruly at a store or restaurant, that business owner or manager has a right to refuse service, same thing but in an online format.
Here are some excerpts from the Twitter Terms of Service that demonstrates the type of violations that could lead to account suspension. “We reserve the right to remove Content that violates the User Agreement, including for example, copyright or trademark violations or other intellectual property misappropriation, impersonation, unlawful conduct, or harassment.” in 3. Content on the Services section. “We may suspend or terminate your account or cease providing you with all or part of the Services at any time for any or no reason, including, but not limited to, if we reasonably believe: (i) you have violated these Terms or the Twitter Rules and Policies or Periscope Community Guidelines, (ii) you create risk or possible legal exposure for us; (iii) your account should be removed due to unlawful conduct, (iv) your account should be removed due to prolonged inactivity; or (v) our provision of the Services to you is no longer commercially viable.” in the Ending These Terms section. Twitter further explains The Twitter Rules clearly outlining safety guidelines.
It’s important to remember these tech companies are private companies and implement their own legal terms to use their services, they are subject to change, read them thoroughly. They are implemented for all user’s protection, so remember if you feel someone has violated the Terms of Service, you have the ability to easily report that account.
Last modified: January 22, 2021
