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President Trump's personal Twitter account is permanently suspended. What's next?

We hear from a local IT expert on what this will mean in the future for social media sites.
Credit: WZDX

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Twitter, a private company, has permanently suspended President Trump's personal account due to "the risk of further incitement of violence."

However, the question remains if and how social media sites will be regulated in the future.

ITSC Secure Solutions Vice President of Cybersecurity & IT, Shane Hammett, says it boils down to whether these social media sites are held to the same standard of broadcast and print publications.

Due to the "Communications Decency Act of 1996" - Section 230- "interactive computer services can't be treated as a publisher or speaker of third party content."

"So essentially they become an intermediary of free speech. So you get into constitutional rights, the 1st Amendment and where does that start and stop, and how far can you go with it?," says Hammett.

Hammett says over the next year, there will be court cases to decide how social media can be regulated.

President Trump's Facebook and Instagram are suspended indefinitely, and at least until there's a peaceful transition of power.

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