Twitter Announces It Won’t Block World Leaders’ Tweets

The Twitter app is seen with an image of US president Donald Trump in the background in this photo illustration on December 4, 2017. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto)
The Twitter app is seen with an image of US president Donald Trump in the background in this photo illustration on December 4, 2017. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Twitter on Friday announced that it will not block world leaders or remove their controversial tweets.

The post did not mention President Donald Trump by name, but the announcement was likely prompted by concern about Trump’s social media habits. The President recently bragged about the size of his nuclear button on Twitter and has retweeted posts from a British far-right leader who was later suspended by Twitter.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about political figures and world leaders on Twitter, and we want to share our stance,” Twitter said in a statement on Friday. “Twitter is here to serve and help advance the global, public conversation. Elected world leaders play a critical role in that conversation because of their outsized impact on our society.”

“Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate. It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions,” the company added.

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  1. My thoughts exactly. If Twitter won’t block trump’s tweets then trump shouldn’t be able to block any comments replying to them.

  2. Avatar for pshah pshah says:

    If they are truly official government statements, then I might agree. But if they are not, Trump should be held to the same standard as any other run of the mill neo-Nazi.

    Time for the Trump Administration to pick a side wrt the tweets.

  3. “The President recently bragged about the size of his nuclear button…”

    It’ll never be as big as Obama’s.

  4. I don’t know what upsets me more. The fact that Twitter thinks it is a platform for the serious discussion of global politics, or the fact that so much of the public has been dumbed down to the point where Twitter actually is the proper platform for their serious discussion of global politics.

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