MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th January, 2021) The ongoing censorship and infringement on freedom of expression on US social media reflects exactly how the United States behaves on the international arena, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
Twitter and Facebook, followed by a few lesser known social media, banned outgoing US President Donald Trump from their platforms permanently, accusing him of inciting violence. Tens of thousands of pro-Trump users had their accounts suspended as well.
"[The United States] is a country that in recent decades has been strongly professing one single manner of international affairs � sanctions and restrictions, which are illegal. The same thing as they now do to social media and in social media � without law and without court decision � is exactly how they 'knock out' undesirable companies, countries and individuals from the economic and scientific spaces. Everything that is now unfolding in the digital space we watched spiraling for decades," Zakharova told Russia's Rossiya 1 television channel.
The "incitement of violence" was also the reason that the US House of Representatives cited when impeaching Trump on Wednesday, for the second time during his term. This came on the back of riots in Washington last week, when crowds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Hill in protest of what they believe was a Biden-stolen presidential election. The unrest left five people killed.
