Twitter, which happens to be Donald Trump's favourite social media platform, says that even after posting what North Korea considers a "clear declaration of war", the sitting president won't be banned from expressing his thoughts in 140 characters or less. According to the AV Club, it boils down to one thing: Trump's posts bring more eyes to Twitter.
The AV Club reports that "if a regular person were constantly making racist threats and pledging to attack foreign leaders they disagreed with, that person would get banned." However, the president isn't a regular person, so Twitter considers the content that Trump shoots into the internet ether to be "newsworthy". Because of that, everything that he posts, whether it's his opinion on the NFL or his lack of opinion on Puerto Rico, constitutes what Twitter considers keeping the public "informed about what's happening in the world".
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Today, Twitter issued a statement through its Public Policy account that basically absolved itself of any responsibility for Trump's posts. Don't shoot the messenger and all that. The statement, which came via a series of six tweets, adds that the platform holds Trump to the same standards as any other user, though many members of the general public might not see it that way.
Anyone who has experienced harassment on Twitter knows that it's difficult to get any actual results from reporting a user. But there have been instances where bans have occurred, like in the case of Milo Yiannopolous, who led many to post abusive and racist tweets directed at Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones.
In its statement, Twitter says that many of the standards that it's using to determine whether or not to ban Trump are internal, but that the company would make them more public-facing in the future. Until then, it's doubling down on its idea that Trump's tweets are an integral part of the news cycle. Read the whole statement, below.
THREAD: Some of you have been asking why we haven't taken down the Tweet mentioned here: https://t.co/CecwG0qHmq 1/6
— Twitter PublicPolicy (@Policy) September 25, 2017
We hold all accounts to the same Rules, and consider a number of factors when assessing whether Tweets violate our Rules 2/6
— Twitter PublicPolicy (@Policy) September 25, 2017
Among the considerations is "newsworthiness" and whether a Tweet is of public interest 3/6
— Twitter PublicPolicy (@Policy) September 25, 2017
This has long been internal policy and we'll soon update our public-facing rules to reflect it. We need to do better on this, and will 4/6
— Twitter PublicPolicy (@Policy) September 25, 2017
Twitter is committed to transparency and keeping people informed about what's happening in the world 5/6
— Twitter PublicPolicy (@Policy) September 25, 2017
We’ll continue to be guided by these fundamental principles 6/6
— Twitter PublicPolicy (@Policy) September 25, 2017