Contrary to suggestions otherwise, Voltaire would have applauded the decision by Twitter and Facebook to suspend the access of Donald Trump to their platforms. Much like John Stuart Mill, the British philosopher and guru of classical liberalism, Voltaire supported criminal laws against libel, slander, incitement to violence and treason. Mill is credited with developing “the harm principle” under which laws restricting personal freedom should be promulgated “to prevent harm to others”.
Freedom of speech: Voltaire would applaud Trump Twitter ban
Tag: Twitter

Australia’s Disgusting Leadership (ODT)
Members of the Morrison government have saved their loudest outrage for Twitter, the social media platform Trump used to incite his followers, and the platform that has finally banned Trump for life. This, it appears, is the great injustice, an affront to “free speech,” and, wait for it, censorship.
When your government thinks banning Trump from Twitter is the real injustice – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In reaction to Twitter’s announcement that it will be permanently suspending Donald Trump’s account, Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America issued the following statement:
Angelo Carusone: Twitter banning Trump now is “a lot like senior administration officials resigning with only days left” | Media Matters for America

Twitter says it permanently suspended a QAnon account belonging to a family friend of the prime minister, Scott Morrison, for “engaging in coordinated harmful activity”. Twitter is in the middle of a broader crackdown on QAnon content and is attempting to reduce the amplification of accounts spreading “clear and well-documented informational, physical, societal and psychological offline harm on our service”. BurnedSpy34, a prominent and prolific member of the Australian QAnon scene, was recently permanently suspended.
Twitter permanently suspends QAnon account belonging to friend of Scott Morrison for ‘harmful activity’ | US news | The Guardian
Donald Trump’s bloodthirsty threat to have protesters in Minneapolis shot by the military, issued in a tweet early Friday morning, prompted Twitter to restrict access to the president’s message, ruling that it violated the social network’s policy against “glorifying violence.”
via The Racist History Behind Trump’s Threat to Shoot Protesters
Background: Trump as Liar in Chief
Trump posted a Tweet stating that mail-in ballots will be ‘substantially fraudulent’. Two points here: first there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are any more or less fraudulent than in-person voting. Second, the last time an election used mail-in ballots for a special election, the Republican won. It truly is remarkable how quickly Trump can utterly contradict himself. Vote by mail is totally fraudulent but the Republican won. Amazing. This is analogous to his 2016 claims that the electoral college was a disaster for democracy – when it looked like he would lose.
One man’s step closer to a Fascist State. Twitter didn’t block or stop Trump’s Tweets (ODT)
via Trump Signs Social Media Executive Order | HuffPost Australia
The federal Reserve, Impeachment, The Democrats Trump blames everything but himself for the crash. He’s gone Twittering Mad (ODT)
via Trump blames ‘impeachment nonsense’ for Wall Street rout
Twitter should ban Trump (ODT)
President Donald Trump has criticised social media companies after Facebook banned a number of extremist figures, declaring it was getting “worse and worse for Conservatives on social media!” and he was “monitoring and watching, closely!!”
via Trump attacks social media companies after Facebook bans
In simple terms, the interaction rate is a calculation of how many likes and retweets you get compared with your number of tweets and followers.
Think of it as a proxy for how much people are vibing with your content.
And Mr Trump is going backwards — dropping from 0.27 per cent over the previous 12-month period.
So as the President racks up followers, he’s not necessarily gaining new supporters.
In all, Mr Trump comes 16th for interaction rate compared with all the declared Democrat candidates.
In a country like the United States that doesn’t have compulsory voting, one of the key challenges for a candidate is to get voters engaged and to the ballot box.
Mr Trump might enjoy having millions of followers, but that doesn’t mean much if they’re peppered across the world and made up of looky-loos and journalists on the POTUS beat.
If a rival politician with even a fraction of the followers can mobilise an engaged base on social media, it could build.
if the president’s Twitter feed is any indication, he isn’t handling it well. He took to his favorite medium Friday morning to accuse Mueller of “Conflicts of Interest” and criticize a potential forthcoming public report from Mueller as being part of a “Witch Hunt.” He also pushed back on an Atlantic article yesterday suggesting that Trump and his team were unprepared to respond to Mueller’s findings.
You can read the nearly 1,000-character freak-out here:
via Two Big Mueller Filings Are Coming. Donald Trump Is Freaking Out. – Mother Jones