Nineteen characters is all protesters needed to publicly ridicule Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey after his platform found another excuse for allowing President Donald Trump to tweet threats capable of sparking thermonuclear warfare.
“@Jack is #complicit.”
https://www.facebook.com/ResistanceSF/photos/a.685006998368364.1073741830.626361070899624/787042504831479/?type=3&theater
The concise quip was projected onto the side of Twitter’s main headquarters building in San Francisco on Wednesday night. Protesters, who organized under the name Resistance SF, wrote on their Facebook group page that Dorsey was “[breaking] the rules of his own company” and “[endangering] the world.”
North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018
Their fear stems from a tweet Trump posted Tuesday evening that threatens North Korea with a “Nuclear Button” that is “much bigger and more powerful” than the one belonging Kim Jong-un. The remark received criticism for being childish and lacking the diplomatic approach one would expect from the “leader of the free world.”
It also put the spotlight back on Twitter, which had a decision to make: ignore the complaints and leave the tweet standing or delete the post and potentially be seen as censoring its single most important user.
You’d suspect, going by its new rules on violent threats (below), Trump’s tweet would be removed.
“Thus, we will not tolerate behavior that encourages or incites violence against a specific person or group of people. We also take action against content that glorifies acts of violence in a manner that may inspire others to replicate those violent acts and cause real offline danger, or where people were targeted because of their potential membership in a protected category.”
Unsurprisingly, the social platform chose not to, claiming the tweet doesn’t violate its policies on violence. It swiftly responded to complaints with, “Thank you for your recent report. We have reviewed your report carefully and found that there was no violation of the Twitter Rules against abusive behavior.”
https://twitter.com/arb/status/948363265377210369
It’s no surprise the social network chose not to take action given its previous response to a similar situation in which Trump threatened that North Korea “won’t be around much longer!” Its defense was a mysterious “internal rule” that protected the president’s tweets because they were considered “newsworthy.” As per Twitter’s enforcement options page:
“To help ensure people have an opportunity to see every side of an issue, there may be the rare occasion when we allow controversial content or behavior which may otherwise violate our Rules to remain on our service because we believe there is a legitimate public interest in its availability.”
It further shielded the president by adding a loophole to its new guidelines, making government entities an exception.
“Twitter’s new rules don’t apply to “military or government entities” and groups that “are currently engaging in (or have engaged in) peaceful resolution.” It added, “groups with representatives elected to public office through democratic elections” are protected.
Many believe Dorsey is being—in the words of Resistance SF—complicit in allowing Trump to break the rules. It’s not a good look for a company that’s desperately looking for ways to convince people that it’s serious about cleaning up hate speech and abuse.
Resistance SF isn’t giving up its fight to hold Twitter accountable. It urged Dorsey to “resign or ban @realDonaldTrump,” and is planning a protest outside Twitter’s San Francisco offices on Wednesday.
Trump’s latest threat now has some of his highest engagement numbers, racking up nearly 400,000 “likes” and 150,000 retweets.