Big Tech 'Realised How Important Social Media Is for Elections Now' - Pundit

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has admitted recently in an interview that the company was “probably way too aggressive” in banning right-wing activists, but despite that, some right-wing and conservative voices have been permanently banned from the platform. Sputnik discussed why this is happening with conservative pundit Ashley StClair.

Sputnik: Why do you think Facebook and other big social corporations such as Facebook and Instagram practice the banning of conservative pundits, their groups and their personal accounts, is it their strategy or basically impulsive measures?

Ashley StClair: Are you asking if they purposefully ban conservative voices?

Sputnik: Yes, is it their strategy or is it happening from time to time?

Ashley StClair: It's happening consistently all the time, they're consistently, especially Twitter and Facebook, targeting conservatives and banning them aggressively. As Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, said, they have been banning, I've been banned before for conservative viewpoints, as many others that I know have.

Sputnik: How does this ban affect conservatives? Are they trying to look for alternative social networks, what's their strategy then?

Ashley StClair: A lot of it has to do with the politics in America. I think they realised how important social media is for elections now […]

Sputnik: How likely is it that this is going to accelerate leading up to the presidential elections that are coming in 2020? Do you think this practice will be more common?

Ashley StClair: Absolutely, we're seeing it happen more and more. And I think Jack Dorsey has been doing all these interviews trying to be transparent, but I think he's really trying to appear as something that he's not, because we have Jacob Wohl, Laura Loomer, a lot of big conservative voices have just been shut down permanently from not only Twitter, but Facebook, PayPal, Chase bank accounts from conservatives, so it is just getting progressively worse.

Sputnik: And speaking about the bans, do you think there any alternative social networks to use to avoid the big names — Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Do you think other social networks might prosper from this?

Ashley StClair: Absolutely not. Twitter, Facebook, Google and Twitter don't really receive much government funding, but all the other ones like Amazon, Facebook, Google, all of those receive a good amount of government funding and they wouldn't be as big as they are without this government funding, so they're at an advantage, which most social networks will never be at, they will never be able to attain that status.

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Sputnik: You mentioned that the (US) government provided subsidies for Facebook and for Instagram and Google, do you think the government under Donald Trump needs to step up and try to regulate the market?

Ashley StClair: Absolutely, I think the Trump administration needs to step up and do the same thing that he just did for college campuses, where he said if you're not going to support free speech you're not going to receive funding. I think he should do the same thing with places like Facebook and Google. If you don't want to support free speech then you're not going to have government contracts, you're not going to get government funding.

The views expressed in this article are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.