German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls Twitter ban on Trump ban 'problematic'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel thinks Twitter's permanent ban on President Trump is "problematic," a government spokesperson said Monday.

The social media giant last week blocked Trump's official U.S. presidential account, citing the "risk of further incitement of violence," following Trump supporters last week breaching the Capitol building.

Merkel's spokesperson said that Big Tech executives "bear great responsibility for political communication not being poisoned by hatred, by lies and by incitement to violence," but that the right to express one's opinion is of "elementary significance."

"This fundamental right can be intervened in, but according to the law and within the framework defined by legislators – not according to a decision by the management of social media platforms," Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert also told reporters in Berlin. 

"Seen from this angle, the chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the U.S. president have now been permanently blocked," he continued.

Last Thursday, Facebook became the first major online platform to ban the president at least through Inauguration Day and possibly permanently.