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Schakowsky Responds to Facebook and Twitter Banning of Trump

January 7, 2021

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Chairwoman of the Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, react to the announcements from Twitter and Facebook regarding President Trump's accounts:

"Today's actions by Facebook and Twitter are too little, too late, in light of yesterday's violence, as is almost always the case.

"Think–only after the Senate and White House flip, and Trump has two weeks left in office–does Facebook pretend to show the minimal amount of bravery. If it were serious about making amends, Facebook would calculate all the revenue they've earned from targeted ads to members of sedition-affiliated Facebook groups and donate half that money to COVID-19 relief and the other half to civic education organizations.

"Most pressing, however, is the need for investors, advertisers, and the government to make it abundantly clear that the current leadership at Facebook needs a complete overhaul. The country cannot afford to allow Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Joel Kaplan, David Martin, and Monica Bickert to learn from another deadly mistake, nor can we accept another hollow apology from this group.

"Similarly, Twitter has enabled Trump to use their platform to incite violence for years. They must immediately deplatform Trump, permanently. If the company won't act to protect our democracy in this moment of national crisis, then Twitter too needs new leadership who will."

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