Leadership at The Verge have called for the mass censorship of the president and his allies in a damning article headlined “BAN THEM ALL” in all-caps.
Even in a time as hyperbolic as 2020, an article with a lede paragraph that states: “President Trump and his allies are now openly threatening violence against Americans — it’s time to remove them from the internet,” seems particularly vicious.
The Verge Executive Editor T.C. Sottek wrote in a brutal June 2 editorial: “It is time to remove the president from the private platforms he uses to undermine the public institutions he is sworn to protect, starting with Twitter and Facebook.” He then continued: “[I]t is time to remove anyone else in power who facilitates the president’s vile and deadly agenda.”
Sottek alleged that “Trump’s violent rhetoric, spread by the most powerful communications companies in history, is being realized in violent action against ordinary people by the hands of armed authorities.”
Sottek was no less vicious to President Donald J. Trump’s allies. He accused Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) of suggesting “that authorities hunt down and kill Americans ‘like we do in the Middle East.’” He also accused Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) of asking “Trump to use the Insurrection Act to deploy military forces across the US and said the military should give ‘no quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters,’ which, in Sottek’s view, meant “to kill people without taking prisoners.”
Sottek made the demonstrably untrue claim that conservatives airing concerns over biased censorship from social media platforms is some kind of gaslighting campaign:
“Right-wing complainants have already declared social media platforms irreparably biased, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Fox News and other right-wing media organizations thrive on Facebook and Twitter and routinely see their messages flourish there. The charge of bias has always been a hoax perpetrated by demagogues who find profit in partisanship.”
Sottek made the pitch that social media companies have nothing to lose by censoring the president now:
“Besides, the president and his allies have already accused the platforms of censoring them. They will not preserve any good faith by continuing to broadcast his hateful messages.”
Sottek also suggested that Trump’s executive order to actually hold tech companies accountable for failing to live up to the expectations of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 is no less than “plainly illegal”:
“Trump launched a ‘plainly illegal’ attempt to regulate the internet immediately after Twitter added a label to fact-check one of his tweets. It’s hard to believe that was only four days ago. We are already living in a different world.”
The final line of the article again implored Big Tech leaders to censor the left’s opposition by suggesting: “The real-world violence is here. There is blood in the street. What else will it take to start believing?”
