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German Chancellor Angela Merkel consider kicking the US president off Twitter Donald Trump it is “problematic,” the president’s spokesman said Monday.
Twitter permanently banned Trump from its platform on Friday, citing one “Risk of further incitement to violence” as a result of the attack on the United States Capitol by supporters of the outgoing president.
When asked about Twitter’s decision, Merkel’s spokesperson Steffen Seibert said that operators of social media platforms “They have a great responsibility that political communication is not poisoned by hatred, lies and incitement to violence”.
He added that it is correct not to “go back” when such content is published, for example by posting a message.
But Seibert also said that freedom of opinion is a fundamental right of “elementary importance.”
“This fundamental right can be intervened, but in accordance with the law and within the framework defined by the legislator, not in accordance with a decision of the administration of social media platforms”he told reporters in Berlin. “Seen from this angle, the Chancellor finds it problematic that the accounts of the President of the United States are now permanently frozen.”
Facebook suspended Trump’s account on Thursday until January 20, the day the president-elect was inaugurated. Joe Biden, and possibly indefinitely.
Merkel does not have a Twitter account of his own, although Seibert and many German ministers do.