I doubt he would shut Twitter down (if only because he needs it more than it needs him), but I don't doubt for a second that he would use the executive branch to retaliate against them.
I mean, I could have told you that when the already part-time CEO announced he'd move to Africa for a year :)
Dorsey is being incredibly smart by trying to figure out how to break into the African market. He probably wants to do payments there. Get in early, win the market. It's genius.
Just look at what's happening with Belt and Road.
Africa is going to be huge.
If I had his money and influence, I would be doing the same.
It’s definitely a threat. But I don’t see any people backing down, and using “chilling” to me is just pathos to try and make one side seem right. It’s a disagreement on what to do and how to run our big platforms.
He made threats to retaliate, clearly to chill speech he disagrees with.
They are not the same thing. Not even close. And businesses will have to take his behavior into account, especially if some people give him a pass for this.
Trump keeps moving the bar, or trying to, in terms of pushing back against any organizational or legal limits on himself.
It has been both amazing and depressing to see how quickly people start making excuses for him, and declaring his behavior acceptable when it is clearly corruption.