Appearing alongside 11
other aspirants in the live television debate, Harris accused Trump of abusing
the platform where he has over 65 million followers.
U.S. senator, Kamala
Harris, seized the Democratic presidential debate on Tuesday night to advance
her proposal for the suspension of President Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
“Here we have Donald Trump,
who has 65 million Twitter followers and is using that platform as the
President of the United States to openly intimidate witnesses, to threaten
witnesses and obstruct justice.
“He and his account should
be taken down,’’ she said, adding that the Aug. 3 mass shooter in El Paso,
Texas, was inspired by Trump’s hate tweet against Latinos.
As a matter of corporate
responsibility, she argued, “Twitter should be held accountable, and made to
take down that site; it is a matter of safety and corporate accountability’’.
The California senator was
responding to a question on whether it was necessary to break up big tech
companies like Facebook and Twitter over their use for election interference by
foreign interests.
She said she was surprised
that her rival, Sen. Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, opposed her idea of
what should be the rules around corporate responsibility.
Harris said it was “grave
injustice’’ for the social media accounts of ordinary people to be suspended
over abuse, but those of powerful individuals like Trump were spared.
Warren responded saying, “I
don’t just want to push Donald Trump off Twitter. I want to push him out of the
White House. That’s our job.”
Harris disagreed, urging
her to back the campaign for the president’s Twitter account to be shut down.
Also speaking on the
subject, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Andrew Yang, said breaking up the
tech companies would not solve the problem, and suggested the use of
“21st-century solutions’’.
Sen. Cory Booker (New
Jersey), said American democracy was in “massive crisis’’ with the way the big
tech companies were being used not only in anti-competitive practices but also
in undermining the country’s democracy.
Booker said such practices
used in the 2016 presidential election had not been corrected, and as
president, he would pursue a reform in America’s anti-trust laws.
The Russian government is
accused of creating thousands of social media accounts to harm the campaign of
the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, in favour of Trump during the 2016
election.
This has triggered calls
for the unbundling of the big tech companies to guard against their use in
election interference.
However, Facebook CEO, Mark
Zuckerberg, warned that splitting up the companies would boost election
interference because they would not be able to work together to fight it.
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