Today, Jan. 7, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a Senior Chief
Deputy Whip and Chairwoman of the Consumer Protection and Commerce
Subcommittee, issued the following statement in reaction 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.”