A few weeks ago, President Donald Trump shared a video of Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-MN) previous comments on September 11th. Specifically, she said "some people did something," refusing to say terrorists committed the heinous acts.
Omar was so upset by the tweet that she went to Twitter's Chief Executive Officer, Jack Dorsey, demanding to know why the social media platform did not delete Trump's tweet, the New York Post reported. According to Omar, she received death threats following Trump's tweet.
During the call, Dorsey said outright that Trump's tweet didn't violate the social media platform's standards. Not only that but the April 12th tweet had been shared on other websites outside of Twitter, the Washington Post reported.
Although the call was supposed to remain private, Twitter did confirm that a conversation between Omar and Dorsey took place.
"During their conversation, [Dorsey] emphasized that death threats, incitement to violence, and hateful conduct are not allowed on Twitter,” the social media company said in a statement. “We’ve significantly invested in technology to proactively surface this type of content and will continue to focus on reducing the burden on the individual being targeted. Our team has also consistently been in touch with Rep. Omar’s office."
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Although Twitter didn't pull down Trump's video, they did say they needed to do a better job "generally at removing hate and harassment from the site."
According to WaPo, Twitter has allowed Trump to have some leeway with the policy:
Trump is one of Twitter’s most popular yet controversial users, whose political salvos are broadcast to nearly 60 million followers each day. Critics say his comments often violate site rules that prohibit hate speech, attacks on the basis of one’s personal characteristics and incitements to violence. But Twitter ultimately has allowed the president to tweet without limit, arguing there’s a public interest in allowing a head of state to communicate such views unfettered.
But in recent weeks, Twitter has signaled it is rethinking that policy. Company leaders recently said they are planning to institute a new approach that would provide more context around tweets that its rules would have prohibited but were permitted to remain on the site anyway because of the speaker. Such a policy could result in public notations on Trump’s own tweets.
The video President Trump tweeted wasn't hate speech. It wasn't controversial. Omar is upset because she was caught refusing to say terrorists committed the attacks on September 11th. Most Americans can agree that terrorists carried out the deadliest attack on American soil. No one in their right mind would be willing to kill thousands of people for no reason other than because they can.
Omar has said a lot of really crazy stuff on Twitter. In fact, that's where most of her gaffes come from (similar to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) yet how many people are going to Dorsey demanding that her tweets be pulled down and deleted? That's right. None, as far as we know.
Maybe Omar will think before she speaks, although that's a very big maybe.
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