Twitter cited President Donald Trumps newsworthiness and the public interest as reasons why it declined to remove a tweet that added to the fiery rhetoric between the United States and North Korea.
Trump tweeted Saturday : Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they wont be around much longer! On Monday, North Koreas top diplomat called the tweet a declaration of war. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded by calling the suggestion of such a declaration absurd.
Twitters rules state users may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism. This includes direct as well as indirect threats.
The company responded to questions about why Trumps tweet wasnt removed Monday by posting in a series of messages on its public policy account that newsworthiness is one of the factors it considers in determining if a tweet breaks the platforms rules.
This has long been internal policy and well soon update our public-facing rules to reflect it, one message read. We need to do better on this, and will.
The company also stated it is committed to transparency and keeping people informed about whats happening in the world.
Calls for Twitter to curtail Trumps use of the platform are not new . The company has said in the past that it doesnt comment on individual accounts, but it has cited the importance of hearing from leaders in order to hold people accountable.
Trumps account wasnt affected in July, when Twitter announced that it was taking action, including suspensions, on 10 times the number of abusive accounts than it did a year before.
Keeping the president on the service also makes business sense: Trumps tweets are constantly in headlines, calling attention to Twitter and, ideally for the company, getting more users to sign up.
(AP)
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