Twitter has a plan to tackle the flurry of demands that Donald Trump be banned from Twitter, and it’s likely to piss off Trump whenever he gets around to pulling out his phone while he’s over in Osaka, Japan for the G20 Summit.
The plan?
Place warnings on tweets made by Trump and other politicians that alert fellow tweeters of the potential that the tweet may violate their rules, but may be in the public’s interest. This is nice and laid back of Twitter, but we’d rather just see Trump, the far-right and ultraconservative nutjobs removed, altogether. Amirite? He’s used the platform to attack government officials, name-call women and share far-right memes and other questionable media.
The warning will be prior to being able to view the tweet and will look like this all-too-familiar warning that most us have likely seen before:
From PBS:
‘Starting Thursday, tweets that Twitter deems to involve matters of public interest, but which violate the service’s rules, will be obscured by a warning explaining the violation and Twitter’s reasons for publishing it anyway. Users will have to tap through the warning to see the underlying message.
‘Twitter said the new policy applies to all government officials, candidates, and similar public figures with more than 100,000 followers.’
Trump loves tweeting. It’s just a shame that in 2019 he uses the platform to make official statements, threaten opponents, warn international leaders, divide the country and much, much more. Also, he often times speaks one way, but tweets more… viciously. See below for a quick recap of examples of his speech v his tweets.
[To read Twitter’s official statement regarding the new warning, click here.]
Excerpts:
‘There are certain cases where it may be in the public’s interest to have access to certain Tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules. On the rare occasions when this happens, we’ll place a notice — a screen you have to click or tap through before you see the Tweet — to provide additional context and clarity’
Continued:
‘We’ll also take steps to make sure the Tweet is not algorithmically elevated on our service, to strike the right balance between enabling free expression, fostering accountability, and reducing the potential harm caused by these Tweets.’
Within the guidelines of who the new policy will affect, it clearly states that it applies to “government officials, someone running for public office, have more than 100k followers, and finally, be a verified account.” Twitter does not name Donald Trump specifically.
Google search results for “Trump News” shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% of….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018
Just yesterday Trump spoke with Fox News Business, where he said this:
‘Twitter is just terrible, what they do. They don’t let you get the word out. I’ll tell you what, they should be sued because what’s happening with the bias — and now you see it with that executive yesterday from Google. The hatred for the Republicans: It’s not even like ‘Gee! Let’s lean Democrat.’
We wonder if this may have been the result of Twitter founder, Jack, meeting with Donald Trump at the White House back in April for a closed-door meeting? This was a result of his constant bitching that social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and even Google search are rigged in favor of Democrats and against Trump and his extreme Republicans.
Sadly, the new policy doesn’t apply to past tweets prior to today. Twitter’s new policy takes affect today.
Featured image via Youtube screenshot.