4 ms·

COVFEFE Act would make social media a presidential record

29 points by obi1kenobi 9y ago

dmix 9y ago
> "President Trump’s frequent, unfiltered use of his personal Twitter account as a means of official communication is unprecedented. If the President is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference. Tweets are powerful, and the President must be held accountable for every post," Archiving tweets != holding people accountable There were countless screenshots on archived websites across the web of the tweet immediately after it went out. This is merely political theater to create more layers of control with little real ROI of the intended problem. What matters most is the feeling of controlling something which you don't control. The type of policy politicians love! I'm sure if this passes it will result in tens of millions of dollars in consulting fees to what largely could be solved with a server or two hitting the twitter API to capture each tweet and stored securely. Or a single person hired to document tweets manually in a database. I'm curious what exactly Trump isn't being held 'accountable' for here because every major US and international news organization documents each of his tweets with whole articles - and clearly including ones he deletes. I'm sure they could legislate processes to eliminate mistaken tweets and the risks of human error here, but lets be honest it's not going to make Trump stop making bold statements at will - which is what they really have a problem with regarding his Twitter. He does the same on every platform he uses directly. Are they going to screen his calls to journalists and other people he talks to as well? Or his aides who leak to journalists version of his day-to-day interactions without the usual PR filters? If that's not the target goal then what is really being accomplished here? Eliminating typos and draft tweets from being accidentally sent out?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- microcolonel 9y ago
  Hilariously, inside the article it is clearly stated, by somebody who speaks for the institution which would be responsible for this archiving, that the Tweets are already considered Presidential Records. > In January, National Archives spokesperson Miriam Kleiman told the Associated Press that social media posts would qualify as presidential records, but that statement is not explicitly spelled out in the law. So not only is the private sector adequately serving the purpose of archiving the president's Tweets, but the National Archives probably are as well. I really hope that the people who voted for Mike Quigley are embarrassed that this is the pathetic, childish level that an Illinois 5 representative operates at.
olliej 9y ago
Ugh, this is a real issue (twitter, or other "social" platforms) are all presidential communication platforms -- legislation shouldn't (i know, i know, ideal world, old man shouts at sky, etc) be special cased. It should be "all communication on any public platform should be archived, no matter the nature or location of the platform". Naming it the COVFEFE act trivializes what is a real issue (presidents should not have the ability to retroactively remove records of public statements).
tritium 9y ago
To be honest, this sounds like a terrible idea, but then again something really should be done about the level of obnoxious nonsense on display.
- dmix 9y ago
  > but then again something really should be done about the level of obnoxious nonsense on display. If only people asked whether something could be meaningfully accomplished before demanding something be done then we'd have far less bad laws.
gozur88 9y ago
Dumb. It's not like deleting tweets makes them go away. If this is what Democrats are bringing to the game it's gonna be a long eight years.
- pg_is_a_butt 9y ago
  fake news

29 points by obi1kenobi 9y ago

dmix 9y ago

> "President Trump’s frequent, unfiltered use of his personal Twitter account as a means of official communication is unprecedented. If the President is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference. Tweets are powerful, and the President must be held accountable for every post," Archiving tweets != holding people accountable There were countless screenshots on archived websites across the web of the tweet immediately after it went out. This is merely political theater to create more layers of control with little real ROI of the intended problem. What matters most is the feeling of controlling something which you don't control. The type of policy politicians love! I'm sure if this passes it will result in tens of millions of dollars in consulting fees to what largely could be solved with a server or two hitting the twitter API to capture each tweet and stored securely. Or a single person hired to document tweets manually in a database. I'm curious what exactly Trump isn't being held 'accountable' for here because every major US and international news organization documents each of his tweets with whole articles - and clearly including ones he deletes. I'm sure they could legislate processes to eliminate mistaken tweets and the risks of human error here, but lets be honest it's not going to make Trump stop making bold statements at will - which is what they really have a problem with regarding his Twitter. He does the same on every platform he uses directly. Are they going to screen his calls to journalists and other people he talks to as well? Or his aides who leak to journalists version of his day-to-day interactions without the usual PR filters? If that's not the target goal then what is really being accomplished here? Eliminating typos and draft tweets from being accidentally sent out?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
microcolonel 9y ago
Hilariously, inside the article it is clearly stated, by somebody who speaks for the institution which would be responsible for this archiving, that the Tweets are already considered Presidential Records. > In January, National Archives spokesperson Miriam Kleiman told the Associated Press that social media posts would qualify as presidential records, but that statement is not explicitly spelled out in the law. So not only is the private sector adequately serving the purpose of archiving the president's Tweets, but the National Archives probably are as well. I really hope that the people who voted for Mike Quigley are embarrassed that this is the pathetic, childish level that an Illinois 5 representative operates at.

olliej 9y ago

Ugh, this is a real issue (twitter, or other "social" platforms) are all presidential communication platforms -- legislation shouldn't (i know, i know, ideal world, old man shouts at sky, etc) be special cased. It should be "all communication on any public platform should be archived, no matter the nature or location of the platform". Naming it the COVFEFE act trivializes what is a real issue (presidents should not have the ability to retroactively remove records of public statements).

tritium 9y ago

To be honest, this sounds like a terrible idea, but then again something really should be done about the level of obnoxious nonsense on display.

dmix 9y ago
> but then again something really should be done about the level of obnoxious nonsense on display. If only people asked whether something could be meaningfully accomplished before demanding something be done then we'd have far less bad laws.

gozur88 9y ago

Dumb. It's not like deleting tweets makes them go away. If this is what Democrats are bringing to the game it's gonna be a long eight years.

pg_is_a_butt 9y ago
fake news