They’ve got 13 years’ worth of threats to sift through then
President of the United States Donald Trump has tested positive for Covid-19. The First Lady, Melania Trump has also tested positive.
This comes after Trump spent months arguing with the science proving the severity of the virus, calling it the ‘Chinese flu’ and failing to protect US citizens from the virus, as 250,000 Americans died.
Trump is the most divisive president in history and the news that he had contracted the virus provoked a varied response from fans and critics worldwide. The fans of course wished their hero a speedy recovery, the critics were understandably less sympathetic. Within the critics also exists the divide between those who are indulging in a bit of schadenfreude and those who believe that any ill will towards the president makes you as bad as him.
Twitter have since clarified that “Tweets that wish or hope for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against anyone are not allowed and will need to be removed.”
“This does not automatically mean suspension,” they added.
https://twitter.com/TwitterComms/status/1312167835783708672
Many twitter users were quick to point out that this sort of policy, if they really do mean anyone, gives them an infinite list of violent threats to sift through and deal with appropriately before they even get round to punishing people for LOLing at the president getting coronavirus.
https://twitter.com/Kno/status/1312173742282301442
Facebook are also implementing a similar policy, saying it “distinguish[es] between public figures and private individuals because we want to allow discussion, which often includes critical commentary of people who are featured in the news or who have a large public audience. For public figures, we remove attacks that are severe as well as certain attacks where the public figure is directly tagged in the post or comment.”
So you can say what you want about Trump on FB, just don’t tag him. Makes sense.
