Elizabeth Warren Argues That Facebook Should Not Have the Power to Ban Trump: ‘Acting Like They’re Bigger Than the Government’
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told Cheddar News that while she’s glad former President Donald Trump is not on Facebook, she disagrees that the company should have the power to ban him from its social media platforms, and said that large tech companies in general unfairly dominate the market.
“I’m glad he’s not on Facebook, I think he poses a real danger. But, Facebook shouldn’t have this type of power. They’re acting like they’re bigger than government.”
Sen. @ewarren discusses Facebook’s oversight board upholding the social network’s ban of former President Trump. pic.twitter.com/S2lcbbawhe
— Cheddar News ? (@cheddar) May 5, 2021
Cheddar anchor Kristen Scholer asked Warren whether Trump should be allowed back on Facebook, following the decision by the Facebook Oversight Board to uphold the Trump ban the company implemented in January.
“I’m glad that he’s not on Facebook,” said Warren. “I think that he poses a real danger. “But I don’t think that Facebook ought to have this kind of power,” Warren continued. “We need to break up these giant tech companies, and Facebook is one of them.”
Warren went on to say that “giant” companies, like Facebook, apparently view themselves to be at least as powerful as the government.
“They are crushing competition and in cases like Facebook, they’re acting like they’re bigger than the government. The group that made this decision calls itself ‘the Supreme Court,’” Warren added, referring to the Facebook Oversight Board. “They are not the Supreme Court, they’re part of a private company. They need to be broken up, we need a chance for competition to flourish here, and we need a chance to have some power that balances out what these giants are up to.”
While Warren has long been one of Trump’s fiercest critics, her position on this issue has stayed consistent: in 2019, when asked whether Trump should be banned from Twitter, Warren laughed and answered with a succinct – but clear – “No.”
Watch above, via Cheddar.
