President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that the efforts by Big Tech companies to deplatform him and his supporters was a “big mistake” that would only anger more Americans.
“I think that big tech is doing a horrible thing for our country and to our country, and I believe it’s going to be a catastrophic mistake for them,” Trump said.
The president spoke to reporters prior to leaving Joint Base Andrews aboard Air Force One to visit the wall constructed on the Southern Border in Alamo, Texas.
Trump said that he had warned about the massive power and influence wielded by Big Tech throughout his presidency, adding that the decision they were making would reverberate around the world.
“They’re dividing, and divisive, and they’re showing something that I’ve been predicting for a long time,” he said. “People didn’t act on it, but I think big tech has made a terrible mistake, and very very bad for our country and it’s leading to others doing the same thing.”
He specifically voiced his concern about what Silicon Vally companies had done to him and his supporters in days following the storming of Capitol Hill last week. “It causes a lot of problems and a lot of danger. Big mistake,” he said. “They should not be doing it.”
Facebook and Twitter permanently banned the president’s social media accounts. Google, Apple, and Amazon acted simultaneously to ban Parler, a Twitter competitor, from all of their platforms and web hosting services.
Trump warned of the anger that was building after Big Tech’s actions against conservatives and Trump supporters.
“There’s a countermove when they do that,” he said. “I’ve never seen such anger as I see right now, and that’s a terrible thing and you have to always avoid violence.”
Trump also challenged assertions that his rally speech in front of the White House last week inspired the mob violence that took place on Capitol Hill.
“People thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” he said.
He compared his own rhetoric to Democrat political leaders talking about and failing to condemn the violence during the Black Lives Matter riots during the summer: “If you look at what other people have said, politicians at a high level, about the riots during the summer, the horrible riots in Portland and Seattle and various other places, that was a real problem, what they said.”
He also pointed to his call for protesters of the election to do so “peacefully” on Capitol Hill, although it quickly turned violent.
“Everybody to the teeth thought it was totally appropriate,” he said, referring to his speech.