Berlin, Germany:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that the selection by social media giants to permanently suspend Donald Trump’s accounts is problematic for the reason that freedom of opinion ought to not be determined by such on line platform bosses, her spokesman stated Monday.
“The fundamental right to freedom of opinion is a fundamental right of elementary importance, and this fundamental right can be interfered with, but through the law and within the framework defined by the legislature, not according to the decision of the management of social media platforms,” stated Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert.
“From this point of view, the Chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the US president have been permanently blocked.”
He stated that lies or incitement to violence have been also “very problematic”, but that the path to dealing with them ought to be for the state to draw up a legal regulatory framework.
Completely blocking out views by halting the account is a step as well far, the spokesman stated, but added that he backed action taken by social media in current months to flag false claims.
Merkel had stated she was “furious and saddened” by the storming of the US Capitol by Trump’s supporters.
She had also accused Trump of stoking the unrest by refusing to concede election defeat to Joe Biden.
Twitter on Friday shut down Trump’s account to avoid a different attack on the Capitol developing.