RT.com<\/p>\n
Bernie Sanders is not \u201cparticularly comfortable\u201d with the Twitter ban imposed on former president Donald Trump following the January 6 Capitol riot, saying it is indicative of a trend toward silencing \u201cdifferent points of view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Ezra Klein Show podcast on Tuesday, the US senator from Vermont said he was uncomfortable with the idea of a\u00a0\u201chandful of high-tech people\u201d<\/em>\u00a0having the power to censor different points of view, and called for a \u2018balanced\u2019 approach.<\/p>\n The former Democratic presidential candidate and frequent Trump critic said he did not have a concrete solution for how to\u00a0\u201cbalance\u201d<\/em>\u00a0censorship with measures to combat online abuse and hate, but argued that\u00a0\u201cthe devil is obviously in the details\u201d<\/em>\u00a0when it comes to such bans.<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday, it was Donald Trump who was banned, and tomorrow, it could be somebody else who has a very different point of view… it is an issue that we have got to be thinking long and hard on,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Sanders said, adding,\u00a0\u201cHow do you preserve First Amendment rights without moving this country into a \u2018Big Lie\u2019 mentality and conspiracy theories?,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Sanders explained.<\/p>\n The comments come as reports of Trump\u2019s imminent return to social media on\u00a0\u201chis own platform\u201d<\/em>\u00a0are doing the rounds. Jason Miller, a spokesperson for the former president\u2019s 2020 campaign, told Fox News earlier this week that it would take about\u00a0\u201ctwo to three months\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and would\u00a0\u201ccompletely redefine the game.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Before outright banning him, Twitter had repeatedly flagged Trump\u2019s tweets and placed a 12-hour lockout on his account after the January 6 Capitol riot. His subsequent tweets announcing he would not attend then-President elect Joe Biden\u2019s inauguration and promising his supporters would have a\u00a0\u201cGIANT VOICE\u201d<\/em>\u00a0in the future were cited by Twitter in its decision to permanently ban him over fears of\u00a0\u201cthe risk of further incitement of violence.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n A Pew Research study conducted in late January found 58% of US adults agreed with the banning, while 41% thought it was the wrong move.<\/p>\n After months of scrutiny over the ban, Twitter said last week it was seeking public input on how and when it should ban world leaders. It said it was conducting a review of its policy framework to consider whether or not leaders should be subjected to the same rules as regular users.<\/p>\n Facebook, which also indefinitely suspended Trump in January, has tasked its independent oversight board to rule on whether that ban should stand.<\/p>\n