Twitter and Facebook shares slide amid US violence backlash
Technology companies tried to contain a mounting backlash against their social media sites, with shares of Twitter and Facebook falling and rival platform Parler forced offline by Amazon.
Many conservatives said the moves to expunge US president Donald Trump from the social networks and take down an app popular with his supporters went too far. Twitter shares were down sharply, reflecting shareholder uncertainty about the permanent removal of one of the site’s biggest accounts and the legislative consequence that could follow. Facebook’s shares also fell during the session.
Parler, whose chief executive John Matze pitches the network as a safe place for free speech, went down early today after Amazon Web Services shut off access to its servers, leaving it without a home.
Both Google and Apple kicked Parler from their stores, making it almost impossible to download the app.
The big tech companies justified their actions by citing posts stoking riots in Washington DC last week and sought to avoid further incitements to violence.
The bans underscore the power these companies hold over how information is disseminated and the impact their decisions have.
Previously, it was their stance to allow incendiary speech from Mr Trump and his allies that drew heavy criticism from the left.
Regulatory risks for social media companies will persist even though Democrats will control the Congress and White House, wrote Bank of America analyst Justin Post in a note to clients.
Meanwhile, Parler has so far been unable to find other web hosting services willing to step in, because of the negative publicity stemming from the violence, organised in part on its own platform.
“This is not due to software restrictions, we have our software and everyone’s data ready to go,” said Mr Matze.
“Rather, it’s that Amazon’s, Google’s, and Apple’s statements to the press about dropping our access has caused most of our other vendors to drop their support for us as well.”
Even some e-commerce and payments sites are now reassessing doing business with companies linked to Mr Trump. Stripe will stop processing payments for Mr Trump’s campaign website, according to a person familiar with the decision. Shopify shut down online stores affiliated with Mr Trump.
Before last week’s violence, lawmakers and civil rights advocates had long been pressuring social media platforms to crack down on posts that encourage violence or hatred.
While regulators in Europe have passed laws fining companies that fail to act on hate speech, the US has largely left regulation to the companies. Twitter first put warning labels on Mr Trump’s tweets that supported the Capitol rioters, then hid them, before suspending the account.
- Bloomberg
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