Donald Trump, corporation rights, and the limits of free speech

Donald Trump has been permanently removed from Twitter, among other social media sites, following his encouragement of the attempted coup on the 6th of January in which the Capitol building was invaded and five died — four rioters and one Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick.

Many of his supporters on Twitter have promised to abandon the site in favor of Parler, though the latter will no longer be hosted by Amazon or available on Apple or Google app stores, resulting in discussions about the return to prominence of MySpace or of a boost in sites like Gab and Minds. Where the Trump wing of the right might go after that when those companies find themselves threatened with being kicked off hosting systems if they permit the same types of speech that Trump and company gave out for years is for computer experts to speculate about, but I will predict that the conversations will occur increasingly in the darker parts of the Internet, walling off in an echo chamber thoughts that would be best confronted in the open.

But what about the decision to ban Trump? As a supporter of free speech, can I agree with this choice?

Yes. I will not bury my answer, though I will go on to defend it. But yes, Trump’s speech was not protected by the currently applicable standards.