By The FirstWhile President Trump’s ban from Twitter on January 8, 2021 was met with celebration by some in the United States, leaders around the world were less than enthusiastic about Trump’s abrupt banishment from the platform.
In the latest “Twitter Files” reveal, independent journalist Bari Weiss recounts the reaction of a number of high profile leaders in the wake of Trump’s ban.
“Outside the United States, Twitter’s decision to ban Trump raised alarms, including with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, and Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador,” recounts Weiss. “Macron told an audience he didn’t ‘want to live in a democracy where the key decisions’ were made by private players. ‘I want it to be decided by a law voted by your representative, or by regulation, governance, democratically discussed and approved by democratic leaders.’
“Merkel’s spokesperson called Twitter’s decision to ban Trump from its platform ‘problematic’ and added that the freedom of opinion is of ‘elementary significance.'” Weiss added. “Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny criticized the ban as ‘an unacceptable act of censorship.'”
But while the reaction from world leaders was one of condemnation, internal messages show that the reaction inside Twitter HQ was “ecstatic” and “congratulatory,” as Weiss describes it.
READ MORE: TWITTER FILES Pt. 5: Behind the Scenes of Trump’s Final Days on Twitter
