How quickly, in a crisis, the unthinkable can become reality. If it might have seemed fanciful a week ago that a US president could incite insurrection or face a second impeachment in a single term, so, too, would the prospect of social media platforms barring the “leader of the free world”. The bans by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on President Donald Trump raise profound issues — of freedom of speech, and the precedents they may set for less free societies. While the “permanent” nature of Twitter’s suspension is questionable, however, not acting would have created even bigger risks.
在一場危機中，先前難以想象的事情也能夠迅速變成現實。如果說在一周前，一位美國總統煽動叛亂或者在一屆任期內面臨第二次彈劾聽起來還像天方夜譚的話，那么眾多社交媒體平臺封禁這位“自由世界領袖”，那時看來也是難以想象的事情。Twitter、Facebook、Instagram封禁美國總統唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)賬號之舉，引發了圍繞言論自由、以及它們可能為不那么自由的社會開創何種先例的激烈爭論。然而，雖然Twitter是否應該“永久”地封禁特朗普賬號值得商榷，但不采取行動將會造成更大風險。