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Twitter Says Trump Not Immune From Getting Kicked Off (politico.com)

Twitter legal and policy chief Vijaya Gadde told Politico in an interview that President Donald Trump isn't immune from being kicked off the platform if his tweets cross a line with abusive behavior. "The social media company's rules against vitriolic tweets offer leeway for world leaders whose statements are newsworthy, but that 'is not a blanket exception for the president or anyone else,'" reports Politico. From the report: Trump regularly uses Twitter to heap abuse on his perceived enemies and at times raise the specter of violence, such as when he tweeted last year that if North Korean leaders continued with their rhetoric at the time, "they won't be around much longer!" Critics say the tweets violate Twitter's terms of service and warrant punitive action. Dorsey, who's due to testify before two congressional committees Wednesday about his company's content practices, said he receives notifications on his phone for Trump's Twitter account. But asked if he would weigh in personally to remove Trump from the platform, he declined to get into specifics.

"We have to balance it with the context that it's in," he said. "So my role is to ask questions and make sure we're being impartial, and we're upholding consistently our terms of service, including public interest." Amid controversy over Trump's tweeting back in January, Twitter posted to its corporate blog an unsigned explanation of its thinking around "world leaders" -- without calling out Trump by name. It said blocking such leaders or removing their tweets "would hide important information people should be able to see and debate." Dorsey tweeted the policy, saying "we want to share our stance."

7 of 342 comments (clear)

  1. So, if you can't you get booted, but if you can... by Excelcia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, if you threaten to destroy an entire nation or people, and you don't have the ability to carry out your threat, you get booted off Twitter. But if you make the threat and actually have a credible possibility of making it happen, then it's newsworthy and they leave it on.

    Translation: We're scared of Trump and don't want to have to take action unless it's for something that no one will criticize us for.

    Cowards.

    Make a policy and stick to it, or don't have one.

  2. So I guess Twitter is more powerful than the Feds by Noishkel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'll point out that President Trump as already had a federal judge declare that he can't block people on his Twitter feeds. Citing the idea that his account is a "designated public forum" after a number of journalist were blocked from tweeting at him. If that is the case how exactly could Twitter than turn around take that designated public forum away citing their own TOS?

    Ultimately I don't know what that court case would look like, but I bet it will turbo charge the argument that social media needs to be regulated like a public unity or a common carrier.

  3. Yeah he is. by jwhyche · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Technically, he is not. They could kick him if they really wanted too. Removing him would be the worse thing they could possibly do. Probably the business equivalent of corporate suicide. Some Republicans are already barking about how much the tech. giants Twitter, Google, and Facebook control they have over speech. Limiting a sitting republican presidents speech on their platform might be enough to push them over the edge and have congress start regulating speech on internet platform.

    I don't think any of us, pro trump or anti-trump, want that bunch of baboons attempting to police what we can say online. As much as we find Trumps tweets annoying, our best bet is just to ride this out. It will be over in a few years.

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    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    1. Re:Yeah he is. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It will be over in a few years.

      Will it ?

      The problem is not Trump per se, it's the the voters that put him there. Had it been a dog, a monkey, or even Ralph Wiggum, they would have voted for him/it anyway, because they wanted to do a big finger at the "establishment", whatever the fuck that is.

      Trump supporters know exactly what kind of disgusting piece of shit he is. The elected him because of it. And just like with Trump, they'll vote en masse, first in the primaries, then in the presidentials, for the next fucking moron in line for the republican candidacy. Because all they care about is pissing off liberals.They are ready to sacrifice their future, their children's future, their country, their planet, everything, just for the chance to do so.

      Trump supporters are the reason why the founding fathers were originally so opposed to democracy.

  4. Re:Double Standard by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Perhaps they think that is better than voting for people that despise their culture and call them "rubes".

    Today, we got a little insight into how Donald Trump feels about that "culture".

    President Donald Trump reportedly called Attorney General Jeff Sessions a "dumb southerner" and mocked Sessions' accent behind his back. Trump, mimicking Sessions' southern accent, called his attorney general "mentally retarded" and said that Sessions "couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama."

    Oopsie.

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    You are welcome on my lawn.
  5. Re:So, if you can't you get booted, but if you can by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The media lock down?

    WTF the most popular news show loves Trump. I would say they can't get enough of him though strictly speaking that's not true. That time he phoned up after rambling at the hosts for half an hour he pretty much did get kicked off.

    But seriously you're delusional, since you seem to believe fox news somehow isn't part of the media.

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    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  6. Re:So, if you can't you get booted, but if you can by theCoder · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You think it's just stuff about Trump, but more likely you just noticed it there. I noticed a while ago that stories about technology (which I know a thing or two about) are usually also "a complete fabrication, a partial lie or a spin on facts." Somehow, I get the impression that a story about a local parade would probably fall into one of those three. Probably all of them at different points if the story is long enough. Not to long ago, I was involved as a volunteer in a STEM education event that was covered by local media. The reporter interviewed the main organizer of the event, and got his name wrong. Despite the fact that the event had a wireless microphone he could use so he referred to himself as "wireless Mike."

    Normally, I'd just attribute these things to incompetence, but it seems like it happens so much, even that strains credulity. As the old saying goes, sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

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    "Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs" -- author unknown