# Are social media's recent bannings a freedom of expression issue?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-social-medias-recent-bannings-a-freedom-of-expression-issue/930330>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 12, 2021, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-social-medias-recent-bannings-a-freedom-of-expression-issue/930330 "2021-01-12T14:56:47Z")\
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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-social-medias-recent-bannings-a-freedom-of-expression-issue/930330/36 "2021-01-12T19:11:08Z")

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A recent closed thread asked if it was a first Amendment violation. It is not. But one poster in the thread raised the issue of whether it might be an oligopoly issue. In a world in which a very few companies, and in fact a very few individual executives, control the soapboxes of the public square, should there be some consideration to that power by a very few, that it not be applied capriciously?

Case made by Russian dissident and assassination attempt survivor Alexey Navalny.

> <https://mobile.twitter.com/navalny/status/1347969772177264644>

Neither is Merkel a fan.

> **[Germany's Merkel hits out at Twitter over 'problematic' Trump ban](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/11/germanys-merkel-hits-out-at-twitter-over-problematic-trump-ban.html)**
>
> German Chancellor Angela Merkel blasted Twitter's decision to ban U.S. President Donald Trump.

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