BEIJING: Establishment and pro-establishment forces in the US are getting united to fight their “common enemy” – President Donald Trump and his supporters with unprecedented efforts, especially “executing Trump digitally” among social media networks, which brought concerns worldwide on the US digital hegemony that could have huge impact on world politics, and Chinese analysts have reminded that Trumpism won’t disappear, instead, it will keep tearing apart the US.
US social media giants are not just targeting the president but also the accounts that choose to support Trump. Twitter on Monday said that it had removed more than 70,000 accounts that promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory in recent days, as the company widened its crackdown on content that could incite violence after barring President Trump from its service last week, according to the New York Times.
Chinese experts said on the one hand, it is understandable that US social media giants must ban these accounts otherwise they might see more violence and conflicts across their country due to extremism and conspiracy theories that could spread hatred and create divergences; but on the other hand, the actions were not based on the law but the rules made by the companies, which show these firms with monopolistic advantages among the West are being increasingly powerful and unchallengeable to some extent.
Through the US political situation after the Capitol riot, Chinese people see more clearly that the power center of the US capitalist system is still Wall Street, as it can effectively gather all establishment forces, politicians of two major parties, social media giants and traditional media outlets to jointly crack down on Trump, pro-Trump politicians and Trump supporters with unprecedentedly assertive and powerful strikes.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the most respected Western leaders who disagreed with Trump on many issues, also considers Trump’s eviction from Twitter by the company “problematic,” her spokesman Steffen Seibert said Monday, the AP reported.
Seibert said the operators of social media platforms “bear great responsibility for political communication not being poisoned by hatred, by lies and by incitement to violence.”
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
