The so-called deplatforming of Donald Trump has provoked misguided cries of censorship and injustice.
Deplatforming, in contrast to these plain-English descriptions of Trump's plight, is a deliciously Orwellian construct that gives credence to a misconception at the heart of the matter of what society expects from these powerful corporations. The word has its origins in academia, referring to movements at American and British universities beginning in the 1940s to disinvite — or not offer a platform to — certain campus speakers.
If the tech companies had stuck to cat videos and the like, all would have been fine. But all manners of vile speech have appeared too, and the companies have labored, under great criticism, to clean up their acts. The problem, as Jonathan Knee, a Columbia Business School professor and media banker, puts it, is that they are not well suited to the task. "The fact that there's media going on here is secondary to how they think about themselves," he says.
. It contains a provision that shields supposedly unique and fledgling digital companies from liability for content posted to their sites by someone else, the once shiny-new concept of user-generated content.Bad actors flocked to the sites alongside middle-aged people reading about their high-school chums. Belatedly and inadequately, the sleeping giants, no longer scrappy startups, woke up.
adamlashinsky Where is the tweet bring it back