The president’s preference for Twitter has put the platform into a tricky situation.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump tweeted the following:
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2017
Trump's tweet was taken as a declaration of war by North Korea. The rogue state's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said: "Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country."
In a press conference, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied that the tweet was a declaration of war, calling the idea “absurd”:
The tweet, which has not been deleted, poses a problem for Twitter, which has struggled to address bullying and harassment on its platform.
Twitter has a longstanding problem with abuse that many see as contributing to its stagnant user growth. It has brought in several new measures this year to address the issue, such as making it harder for abusive tweets to reach the eyes of their targets, and banning more people for their trollish behavior.
Under “Abusive Behavior,” Twitter’s rules state:
We believe in freedom of expression and in speaking truth to power, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up. In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we do not tolerate behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user’s voice.Any accounts and related accounts engaging in the activities specified below may be temporarily locked and/or subject to permanent suspension.
- Violent threats (direct or indirect): You may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism.
- Harassment : You may not incite or engage in the targeted abuse or harassment of others. Some of the factors that we may consider when evaluating abusive behavior include:
o if a primary purpose of the reported account is to harass or send abusive messages to others;
o if the reported behavior is one-sided or includes threats;
o if the reported account is inciting others to harass another account; and
o if the reported account is sending harassing messages to an account from multiple accounts.
On Monday, Twitter’s public policy team tweeted the following thread to explain why it was not removing Trump’s tweet:
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
[RELATED: Join us for the Social Media #Mashup at Disneyland.]
Some took the explanation to suggest that almost no tweet which violates Twitter’s terms of service will be taken down if it meets the “newsworthy” standard.
It parallels a proposed amendment to the Presidential Records Act: In June, a lawmaker asked that Trump’s tweets be included in theNational Archives and Records Administration’s domain. The inclusion would bar Trump from deleting his tweets (including his infamous “covfefe” tweet), because they would be official presidential communications.
Twitter users who criticized the statement were quick to point out what some called a double standard:
So, the tweet could be a threat from Trump, but because he's POTUS, it remains? Sounds inconsistent and biased.
— Mike Rana ✈️📱🇺🇸 (@michaelranaii) September 25, 2017
So someone can literally threaten to murder an entire country, as long as it's newsworthy? Okay cool thanks for the clarification.
— Chris Coltrane 🥉 (@chris_coltrane) September 25, 2017
Will this be before or after the launch of a nuclear weapon? Just so we're clear on what the threshold is
— Amy Coopes (@coopesdetat) September 25, 2017
It doesn’t help that many of Trump’s tweets have incited passionate responses and consumed headlines.
Engadget looked back at 1,200 tweets since Trump became president and said that while many of them were “incendiary,” they appeared to skirt just shy of crossing the line into a clear-cut violation that would draw censorship. (That piece was published before Trump retweeted a gif of himself hitting a golf ball at Hillary Clinton.)
Critics also argue that Trump has other platforms, including the official POTUS Twitter account, press conferences and the presidency, to share his views with the public, and that continuing to let him tweet with impunity from his personal account has not only resulted in violations of Twitter’s own standards, but may encourage abuse against whatever individual or group is currently in Trump’s sights. The latter scenario is also a matter of public interest because an increase in hate crimes has been linked with Trump’s rise to power.
How would you suggest Twitter respond to this situation, PR Daily readers?
(Image via)
from PR Daily News Feed http://ift.tt/2wTVQOy
No comments:
Post a Comment