For President Donald Trump, twitter has so far been an important medium for him to disseminate his views, thoughts, and concerns. His frenzied use of the social media platform may be due to his fractured relationship with the media.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/805804034309427200
He has severally tagged them fake news. In other words, he says CNN, Fox, Newyork Times, BBC and other media empires are peddlers of false news. These news outlets now have no other choice than to monitor Trump’s twitter handle for his comments on national and international issues.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/832708293516632065
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/832230758299340800
With 25.4 million followers, he gets more than 100,000 likes, more than 50,000 retweets and as much as 50,000 replies whenever he tweets. His twitter reach and engagement is quite impressive. Regardless, the content of his tweets is a bit worrisome and distressing that you begin to wonder if it is the President of the United States of America tweeting.
This was his stance or the way he tweeted before he shockingly and unexpectedly won the presidential elections in November. Many would have thought that he would stop his explosive and fairly toxic tweets. No, he has continued at a more frenetic pace. It is more like he has diabetes of the hand that allows him to just tweet whatever pops into his head.
Having said that, what we are concerned about is how twitter is handling Donald Trump on its platform. The question is if Trump was an ordinary user, won’t twitter have suspended his account?
The case of him harassing Hillary Clinton and her husband as well as lashing out at the judges who ruled against his immigration executive order among others are arguably good enough reasons to warrant a ban.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/811195441710764032
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/811196778779463684
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/827981079042805761
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/828342202174668800
Interestingly, looking at twitter rules for suspending an account, it is likely that Trump may have violated at least the rule on harassment. This is because Trump has severally used his twitter account to harass the media, students and other top US politicians.
Nevertheless, it may be very difficult for twitter to suspend Trump even though it says its rules applies to all users. A twitter spokesman was quoted to have said: “The Twitter Rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct, and multiple account abuse, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies. The twitter rules apply to all accounts, including verified accounts.”
This difficulty is probably traced to the fact that twitter is struggling to make a profit. It recently reported that it missed fourth-quarter revenue projections. According to the report, revenue only rose by just 1% to $717.2 million, missing analysts’ average estimate of $740.1 million. So, twitter may be a megaphone for the US president and other celebrities, it has not translated to increased revenues and profits for the influential social media network.
Whatever the case may be, the fact remains that twitter wants Trump to continue his toxic tweeting even if they won’t openly admit it. Notwithstanding, it doesn’t give an ordinary user or celebrity the leeway to tweet anything because twitter will immediately suspend your account.
Of course, celebrities and entrepreneurs whose account have once been suspended by twitter include Azealia Banks, YouTube’s No. 1 star, Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg, and Martin Shkreli among many others.
