5 ms·

I'm confused. What's an example of a tweet from a government official which breaks the rules but deserves to be kept up?

by ng12 7y ago

DSingularity 7y ago
Any tweet from Trump which actively bullies his political opponents through name calling can probably be considered a violation of Twitter terms.
judge2020 7y ago
https://twitter.com/Policy/status/912438046515220480 https://twitter.com/Policy/status/912438046515220480
- mrguyorama 7y ago
  Holy shit the responses to that tweet are basically all culled
slg 7y ago
Threatening violence is against Twitter's rules and yet world leaders have threatened war on Twitter. Those tweets deserve to stay up because they have public value, but Twitter needs some concrete policy on why a world leader saying they will "obliterate Iran" is different than a random person saying they will assault another random person. I am not sure this policy is a good answer to that, but they needed to do something.
- djrogers 7y ago
  > a world leader saying they will "obliterate Iran" It's also worth noting that saying they would "obliterate Iran" under a specific set of circumstances is completely different from saying they will "obliterate Iran". One is an (admittedly blunt) form of diplomatic and political threat, the other is a statement deliberately taken out of context to make someone look worse than they already do.
  - slg 7y ago
    I disagree. One of the primary aspects of many threats is defining the specific criteria that would lead to violence. The point of a threat is usually not to actually inflict the violence but instead to use that possibility of violence as a motivation for changing behavior. It is roughly equivalent to preemptive terrorism. I therefore don't see how putting qualifications on the threat of violence should be enough to circumvent the rules. I would still expect to get in trouble for saying "I will kill you if you ever state that political opinion again" even though the threatened party could easily avoid any fear of violence by simply refraining from stating that opinion.
TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago
I suspect the answer is less “deserves to be kept up” and more “mustn't be pulled down lest we risk the wrath of or lose the attention caused by having the author”. Can you imagine if Twitter suspended the current President of the United States? They'd have the Republican political machine at their throats and lose a ton of attention and thus ad revenue that they currently get from his tweets.
- mrguyorama 7y ago
  My understanding is that the president's tweets have also been found to be essentially public property, meaning twitter cannot take them down anyway
  - vntok 7y ago
    Twitter can take them down as they wish. It is upon the office of the president to archive his tweets.
ceejayoz 7y ago
Given that Twitter's removed tweets saying things like "go jump in a lake" (https://observer.com/2018/10/twitter-ban-adrian-benepe-donald-trump-double-standard/ https://observer.com/2018/10/twitter-ban-adrian-benepe-donal...), stuff like https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1021234525626609666 https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/10212345256266096... seem pretty clear violations.

I'm confused. What's an example of a tweet from a government official which breaks the rules but deserves to be kept up?

by ng12 7y ago

I'm confused. What's an example of a tweet from a government official which breaks the rules but deserves to be kept up?

DSingularity 7y ago

Any tweet from Trump which actively bullies his political opponents through name calling can probably be considered a violation of Twitter terms.

judge2020 7y ago

https://twitter.com/Policy/status/912438046515220480 https://twitter.com/Policy/status/912438046515220480

mrguyorama 7y ago
Holy shit the responses to that tweet are basically all culled

slg 7y ago

Threatening violence is against Twitter's rules and yet world leaders have threatened war on Twitter. Those tweets deserve to stay up because they have public value, but Twitter needs some concrete policy on why a world leader saying they will "obliterate Iran" is different than a random person saying they will assault another random person. I am not sure this policy is a good answer to that, but they needed to do something.

djrogers 7y ago
> a world leader saying they will "obliterate Iran" It's also worth noting that saying they would "obliterate Iran" under a specific set of circumstances is completely different from saying they will "obliterate Iran". One is an (admittedly blunt) form of diplomatic and political threat, the other is a statement deliberately taken out of context to make someone look worse than they already do.
- slg 7y ago
  I disagree. One of the primary aspects of many threats is defining the specific criteria that would lead to violence. The point of a threat is usually not to actually inflict the violence but instead to use that possibility of violence as a motivation for changing behavior. It is roughly equivalent to preemptive terrorism. I therefore don't see how putting qualifications on the threat of violence should be enough to circumvent the rules. I would still expect to get in trouble for saying "I will kill you if you ever state that political opinion again" even though the threatened party could easily avoid any fear of violence by simply refraining from stating that opinion.

TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago

I suspect the answer is less “deserves to be kept up” and more “mustn't be pulled down lest we risk the wrath of or lose the attention caused by having the author”. Can you imagine if Twitter suspended the current President of the United States? They'd have the Republican political machine at their throats and lose a ton of attention and thus ad revenue that they currently get from his tweets.

mrguyorama 7y ago
My understanding is that the president's tweets have also been found to be essentially public property, meaning twitter cannot take them down anyway
- vntok 7y ago
  Twitter can take them down as they wish. It is upon the office of the president to archive his tweets.

ceejayoz 7y ago

Given that Twitter's removed tweets saying things like "go jump in a lake" (https://observer.com/2018/10/twitter-ban-adrian-benepe-donald-trump-double-standard/ https://observer.com/2018/10/twitter-ban-adrian-benepe-donal...), stuff like https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1021234525626609666 https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/10212345256266096... seem pretty clear violations.