The president-elect of the United States is a notorious troll — a fact which his promise to ban Muslims from entering the country, threat to imprison and strip Americans of citizenship for exercising their First Amendment rights, and widespread insulting of people online all make clear. We now learn via Slate that the two technology platforms Donald Trump uses most prominently to spread his messages of hate and division, Twitter and Facebook, take a very different stance on how to respond to future instances of harassment by Trump. Namely, Twitter says it would consider suspending his account. Facebook, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg (mostly) denies contributed to Trump’s victory by means of spreading fake news, not so much.
The publication reached out to Twitter directly and inquired whether top government officials could ever lose access to their accounts for violating the site’s rules. “The Twitter Rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct, and multiple account abuse, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies,” a spokesperson responded. When asked if those standards apply to Trump, who The Guardian reports will soon be given the handle @POTUS, the spokesperson replied in the affirmative. “The Twitter Rules apply to all accounts, including verified accounts.”
Twitter has previously banned so-called “alt-right” a.k.a. white supremacist trolls. That the future president of this country could fall into that category reflects a sad state of affairs. And yet, according the company, Twitter Rules are Twitter Rules. If Trump violates them, his account could be sanctioned in some form or another.
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