Does threatening a nuclear war count as a threat of violence, and must the person who tweets such a thing to, say, his 39.3 million followers abide by Twitter’s rules?
From Twitter’s rules: “Violent threats (direct or indirect): You may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism.”
So does threatening a nuclear war count as a threat of violence, and must the person who tweets such a thing to, say, his 39.3 million followers abide by Twitter’s rules?
Not if that person is President Donald Trump, Twitter said, as it unleashed a tweetstorm Monday to address the questions surrounding the president’s rhetoric on its platform.
In case you missed it amid his other tweets about Warriors star Stephen Curry and the NFL protests over the weekend, Trump tweeted the following Saturday: “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U. N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!”
The North Koreans are interpreting that as a “declaration of war.” Speaking to journalists outside the United Nations General Assembly in New York, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said Monday: “Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make counter-measures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not yet inside the airspace border of our country.”
Now, Twitter has said this before in so many words, but now that things are at nuclear level, here it is again: What Trump tweets is newsworthy, so he’s not getting kicked off Twitter.
Twitter’s tweetstorm began with, “Some of you have been asking why we haven’t taken down the tweet mentioned” in an NPR article about the escalating tensions between President Trump and North Korea.
Twitter’s public policy account goes on to say that the company holds “all accounts to the same rules” on the one hand, but that on the other hand, “among the considerations is ‘newsworthiness’ and whether a tweet is of public interest.”
The contradictory statements in one tweetstorm didn’t sit well with some tweeple.
“So, the tweet could be a threat from Trump, but because he’s POTUS, it remains?” tweeted user @michaelranaii. “Sounds inconsistent and biased.”
“Why can Trump threaten the lives of millions and bully/harass ppl on Twitter, but others get suspended for the same actions or less??” tweeted @PhDee.
But amid the many, many calls for either Trump to stop tweeting, or for Twitter to ban him from doing so, Twitter’s stance has been consistent. Company CEO Jack Dorsey once said Trump’s use of Twitter is “complicated,” but that it’s important the president is on Twitter. “We’re definitely entering a new world where everything is on the surface and we can all see it in real time and we can have conversations about it.”
Oh, we’re not entering that world — we’re in it. So far, Trump has used Twitter to yes, provoke North Korea, tweet violent images attacking Hillary Clinton and CNN, and slam hundreds of other people, things and places. And we’re having conversations about it.
