Twitter, new hero for Democracy or for Stock Markets?

Social networks are private profit-driven companies. I prefer to state the obvious, since lately It seems like we are losing sight of the common sense. Bearing this in mind, It is easy to assume that a CEO can and will do anything in his/her power to gain as much profit as possible, in the clear perimeter of law. It is a right, but also an obligation towards stakeholders.

So, It is rather ironic that Twitter is now considered the new freedom flag bearer for its fact checking halts to Trump, whereas Facebook is facing a digital poop storm, because they are not behaving in the same way Twitter did. What I find even more ironic is that Twitter’s stocks value spiked, after those declarations. One very ill-thinking person could suspect they did it solely on that intent, considering latest earnings reporting a massive drop on EPS (earning per shares).

Again, there is no right or wrong. Each company decides where to steer the ship. Twitter did a smart move from a company point of view, yet a disastrous choice in terms of freedom of speech, even if we are dealing with President Trump who is not exactly the definition of a victim. Facebook chose the exact opposite direction. All fair in love and in war, yet Facebook employees did not take it lightly, and they are quitting in bulk, because they want their leader to stand up against Trump. Why should he?

In such conflicted times, one should not place issues over issues. America is a great country, but after Covid-19 and George Lloyd, is it really able to bear also a discussion on which tweets must be suppressed or not? To be at risk of being a prophet of whataboutism, should we not really focus on more important matters?