Thread by @JuddLegum

I am equally impressed with Facebook and Twitter's decision to ban Trump now as Betsy DeVos and Elaine Chao's decision to resign now.

Both acts seems to mostly reflect Trump's waning power and are unconnected to any larger effort to address how they have facilitated the spread of extremism, conspiracy theories, and violence

With respect to Facebook and Twitter, banning Trump now, with hours left in his presidency seems like an easy way to avoid tougher conversations about how their algorithms are used to spread misinformation, extremism, and violence.

I'd prefer to focus on that rather than Trump.

The banning of Trump will be used as a cudgel to "prove" that these sites are biased against the right-wing when, especially in Facebook's case, they remain the a powerful vehicle for dangerous right-wing rhetoric.

Improving info quality would be less flashy but more important