USA TODAY International Edition
Twitter defends not removing Trump’s threat to North Korea
Twitter is defending its decision not to suspend President Trump over a tweet about North Korea that seems to violate its prohibition on threats of violence.
“Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N.,” Trump tweeted over the weekend. “If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!”
Twitter did not remove the tweet. North Korea interpreted the tweet as a “clear declaration of war.”
Responding to questions from users on why it had not removed the tweet and suspended the president’s account, Twitter said “‘newsworthiness’ and whether a tweet is of public interest” plays a role in its decision-making.
Twitter said this is an internal policy. Its public terms of service state: “You may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism.”
The company acknowledged it needs to do a better job of making its rules transparent to the public.
“We’ll soon update our public-facing rules to reflect it,” Twitter said.
Trump waged the presidential campaign on Twitter and now, as commander in chief, he’s using that digital bully pulpit daily to push his agenda, at times making inflammatory comments that some complain violate Twitter’s terms of service, whether bashing the media, bullying politicians or baiting opponents.
Trump’s use of Twitter is unprecedented for a sitting president. That has put the spotlight and pressure on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to explain its complicated relationship with its most prominent and controversial user.
Dorsey says it’s important to hear from world leaders such as Trump to hold them accountable.
“I believe it’s really important to have these conversations out in the open rather than have them behind closed doors,” Dorsey said earlier this year.