I have posted this short paper on SSRN (prepared for this week’s Stanford/UCLA conference on replatforming Donald Trump). Here is the abstract:

This short position paper, prepared for the Stanford Program on Democracy and the Internet/UCLA Safeguarding Democracy Project conference, “Should Donald Trump Be Returned to Social Media?,” October 14, 2022, argues that former United States president Donald Trump should remain deplatformed from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube even if he declares as a 2024 presidential candidate.

Platforms as private actors engaged in curating speech have a First Amendment right to platform, deplatform, or replatform candidates as an exercise of editorial discretion. In exercising that discretion, platforms as good corporate citizens should support both free speech and democratic institutions.

Given the strong interest in free speech and access by voters to the speech of candidates, officeholders, and other significant political figures, platforms should impose a very high bar to the question of removal or exclusion. Candidates should face removal or deplatforming only if they pose a significant risk to the stability of democracy or foment hatred that poses a significant risk of causing social strife or violence. In particular, candidates should be excluded from platforms only if they show a consistent pattern of (1) suggesting violence as a means of taking power or resolving election disputes; (2) falsely claiming without reliable evidence that an upcoming or past election is or will be stolen or rigged; or (3) engaging in hate speech against racial, ethnic, religious, sexual, or other groups.

Platforms should have preset criteria for determining when to exclude or remove candidates, and they should apply those criteria fairly and consistently. Except in extraordinary circumstances, platforms should first warn candidates of violations and give them a chance to remove objectionable content before deplatforming. Once deplatformed, a candidate should be required to renounce earlier statements that caused the deplatforming before being allowed to return. Platforms should consider the overall risk to public safety before replatforming. Returning candidates should be quickly deplatformed again for violating platform safety rules.

Under these standards, Donald Trump should remain deplatformed. He relentlessly continues to make false statements that the 2020 election was “stolen” or “rigged,” convincing millions of his followers to distrust election results. He has called for “decertifying” the 2020 election, even though such a remedy is not allowed under U.S. law. He has continued to suggest violence, as he did before the January 6, 2021 insurrection, this time as he faces potential indictment for criminal activities. Far from renouncing his speech that led this deplatforming, he has doubled down upon it. He remains a grave threat to American democracy.