Big Tech stocks plunged Monday amid a growing backlash against Silicon Valley’s crackdown on President Trump and his supporters.
Twitter shares plunged as much as 12 percent to $45.17 in the first trading session after it permanently suspended Trump from the platform on Friday.
Twitter had stated that Trump’s account, which had more than 88 million followers, was taken off permanently as it posed a “risk of further incitement of violence” after his supporters stormed the US Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
The stock pared the losses and was down 6.6 percent at $48.07 as of 3:20 pm.
Twitter’s move to permanently suspend a US President in the office is the first of its kind in the country’s history. This is likely to spark furious debate about the role tech companies plays in regulating speech.
This may also affect Twitter’s user base as US citizens have pledged to boycott the firm’s decision while Republican lawmakers pushed for regulatory changes.
Twitter’s step against Trump was taken following Facebook banning the President from posting to his page with 35 million followers.
Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said Monday that Facebook wasn’t planning to lift the ban on Trump’s accounts, adding that he could appeal the decision through the company’s oversight board.
Meanwhile, the growing Twitter rival Parler slapped Amazon’s cloud-computing business with a lawsuit after it purged the social network from its servers. Amazon shares plunged as much as 2 percent Monday.
Facebook’s stock plunged as much as 4.3 percent after it banned Trump.
Twitter had said that plans at works for more armed protests, “including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17.”
The Republicans have demanded reforms to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects social networks from legal liability for their users’ posts.
Democratic lawmakers also are reportedly looking to crack down on Twitter and other social-media giants over their roles in the Capitol riots.
