When Trump makes his arguments on Twitter, voices from across the political spectrum can challenge or fact-check him. (Twitter can even add fact checks or information labels to his content). In whatever forums fill the vacuum after his removal from the mainstream digital discourse, there will be no such moderating or restraining impulses.
This is a recipe for more disasters like the Capitol attack, not fewer.
After all, fringe voters are drawn to far-right candidates and conspiracies like QAnon in part because they feel marginalized and disdained by mainstream culture — they feel that the elites view them as “deplorables,” in Hillary Clinton’s famous phrasing. The tech industry declaring the politician who must closely embody its worldview unfit for public discourse only further fuels the narrative of victimization that pushes people to the fringe.
On the flip side, liberals will only become further removed from what their countrymen actually think. Polling shows that Democrats severely overestimate the extremity of Republicans’ beliefs. Why? In large part, because they do not actually directly engage with them but only see them through distorted media caricatures and echo-chamber depictions.
