On Tuesday, Twitter demonstrated the breadth of the censorship powers now wielded by social media platforms. In the space of a single day, the company both apologized for a series of tweets by the president of the United States and formally labeled two more of his tweets as false. What does Twitter’s newfound willingness to edit the president tell us about the future of free speech?
This week’s remarkable show of Silicon Valley’s power began with an official apology by Twitter for Donald Trump’s use of its platform to question the circumstances surrounding the long-ago death of a staffer in then-Rep. Joe Scarborough’s congressional office. In response to requests by family members of Lori Klausutis to remove Trump’s tweets, the company said they would remain, but issued an apology: “We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family.”
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