“Global leaders are slamming decisions by American social media giants to ban President Trump from their platforms, in many cases separating their personal opinions of the president from their unease over the sweeping power that American Big Tech firms such as Twitter and Facebook now wield. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters in Mexico City this week, ‘I don’t like anyone to be censored, and for them to have their right taken away to send a message on Twitter or on Facebook.’ German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of Mr. Trump’s fiercest critics in Western Europe, and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were among the first to sound the alarm. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on French television, ‘What shocks me is that Twitter is the one to close his account. The regulation of the digital world cannot be done by the digital oligarchy.’ ‘The fact that a CEO can pull the plug on [Mr. Trump’s] loudspeaker without any checks and balances is perplexing,’ Thierry Breton, a prominent EU commissioner involved in the reform push, wrote in an opinion piece for Politico. ‘It is not only confirmation of the power of these platforms, but it also displays deep weaknesses in the way our society is organized in the digital space.’ Matt Hancock, health secretary in the government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said the social media industry’s moves against Mr. Trump raise some big regulatory questions. In Poland, right-wing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a lengthy Facebook post that the Silicon Valley companies seek ‘to ensure political correctness the way they like it and to fight those who oppose them.’ Acting Australian Prime Minister Michael McCormack said Mr. Trump’s suspension equates to censorship.”
“Foreign leaders rip Twitter, others,” Washington Times, Jan. 13, 2021