U.S. President Donald Trump blasted big tech companies Tuesday after their unprecedented crackdown on conspiracy theorists and fringe groups in an urgent effort to prevent more unrest - including silencing the president himself. In his first remarks to the press since the attack on the capitol, Trump said “big tech” is doing a “horrible thing.”
“I think big tech has made a terrible mistake and very very bad for our country and that's leading others to do the same thing, and it causes a lot of problems and a lot of danger. Big mistake, they shouldn't be doing it, but there's always a countermove when they do that. I've never seen such anger as I see right now and that's a terrible thing terrible thing.”
His remarks came after online platforms and social media companies further clamped down on Monday. PayPal has blocked GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdfunding site that had helped raise funds for people who attended last week’s rally in Washington when supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Twitter went after Qanon, the group that has pushed conspiracies on social media … such as the baseless claim that Trump is secretly fighting a cabal of child-sex predators.
Amazon said it’s working to remove some Qanon products from its online marketplace. The retailer’s policies prohibit offensive items or other inappropriate content.
Twitter said it had suspended more than 70,000 accounts since Friday that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content, citing an “increased risk of harm.”
Meanwhile, Airbnb will now ban users who were involved in criminal activity in storming the Capitol. The online home rental firm also said it’ll cancel reservations if it confirms guests are associated with a hate group.
The latest moves follow a flurry of measures taken by tech giants beginning last week when Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s personal account. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon have also taken their strongest actions against Trump to limit his reach.
Speaking during the Reuters Next conference, Facebook’s operations chief Sheryl Sandberg said the world’s largest social network had no plans to lift its block on Trump’s accounts.