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The cynical calculus of banning Donald Trump – Source fastcompany.com

Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Amazon, in deciding to deplatform Donald Trump over last week’s putsch, are neither moral nor immoral. They’re not resistance heroes for cutting bait, just like they weren’t crypto-fascists for the 99.8% of Trump’s presidency during which he weaponized their platforms. They’re amoral corporate entities whose political decisions are determined by everything but politics. To keep or ban Trump has always been a cold-hearted calculus of balancing risk and reward and nothing else. The ransacking of the Capitol tipped the scales.

The Trump circus has been a godsend for Facebook and Twitter. Both are public companies that make the bulk of their money from advertising. The more eyeballs on their platforms, the more advertisers will pay. That’s it. And because Trump has been so controversial, so dramatic, so engaging all of the time, he’s driven more eyeballs and hate-clicks to their platforms than they’d ever dreamed. Trump was good for their…

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Source : fastcompany.com

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