With the new legislation concerning dissemination of lies, will Donald Trump’s Tweets continue to be immune?
Recent numbers suggest that the number of Tweeter users has gone down, and the coming policy from the US Government in terms of false news makes me believe Twitter and other social media platforms will have to review their behavior. In this context, why is Trump still allowed to lie, insult and menace everybody, using the platform?
Yes, it is true that early 2018 Twitter created a special rulethat allows Donald to continue using the platform, a rule made especially to keep Trump on Tweeter, because the platform knows this source of real fake news — what Donald in fact is — attracts, unfortunately, the attention of many users. And yes, Tweeter, which once had a TOS that would not allow Donald to use it the way he does, changed the rules as a way to keep as many people as it can visiting the platform. Because, as everybody knows, even doubling the numbers of characters allowed — and so allowing Donald to say double the lies -, Twitter has lost one million monthly users in the second quarter of 2018, for various reasons, starting with the need to comply with new European Union privacy regulations.
Now, as Europeans prepare to issue new legislation which will make social media platforms responsible for fake news, a move that, apparently, the United States are following, it is time to ask, again, if Twitter will barr Donald from using the platform. Yes, the company may say that “Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate.” But I believe there is nothing to discuss about Donalds’ ideas, because they shift with each new wind. The world does not need an idiot to share his views — we already have enough of those — and besides that, Donald is, and you just have to watch a few videos and read a few articles, a compulsive liar, that does not live in a real world but inside the bubble of an imaginary world that does not go beyond the tip of its nose…
According to a recent document published by the European Commission, entitled “A multi-dimensional approach to disinformation — Report of the independent High level Group on fake news and online disinformation”, online platforms “are a key actor for limiting the spread of disinformation and improving the visibility and findability of trusted news sources”, and it seems they will be held accountable for the dissemination of lies.
So, if social platforms are to be made responsible for the fake news they publish, Twitter could give the example and just close this one account, which has so many times broken the TOS that, Twitter felt the need to create a special rule for it. With new legislation coming, I believe Donald’s tweets fall into the category of fake news — besides the frequent abusive behavior — , so he must go. And you just have to look at a recent tweet from the man to see that Twitter can be made responsible for the dissemination of lies.
I know Jack Dorsey, Tweeter’s chief executive said in a Wired interview last year that Twitter’s policies make an exception for newsworthiness, and that he added “I think it’s really important that we maintain open channels to our leaders, whether we like what they’re saying or not,”, but I am not sure that covers lies.
Examples? Let me just pick a recent one: after meeting, this month, with the publisher of the New York Times A.G. Sulzberger, Donald tweeted this: “Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times. Spent much time talking about the vast amounts of Fake News being put out by the media & how that Fake News has morphed into phrase, ‘Enemy of the People.’ Sad!”
Well, that private conversation was, apparently not be be made public, but Donald’s urge to tell his own truth led Sulzberger to publish his own account of the meeting. Sulzberger said he accepted the meeting to raise concerns about “the president’s deeply troubling anti-press rhetoric” and that he told Trump his language was divisive and “increasingly dangerous.”
Sulzberger also warned Donald, according to the article published by CNN, that “this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence”. Follow the link to read the whole story.
So, according to A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times, Donald is using is position — and Twitter account — to incite people to violence, a behavior we’ve also seen on multiple public moments. It’s as if Americans, instead of having elected a President, elected a bully to lead them. What’ is wrong with the USA, and why is Tweeter supporting a bully?
