The news of the President of the United States contracting COVID-19 has spread like wildfire. As a result, most of the social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have announced that anyone posting on their walls, wishing for Donald Trump’s death won’t be accepted into their folds anymore. On Thursday, the President tweeted that he and the First Lady Melania Trump have contracted the dreaded virus, with many of his admirers taking to these social media sites to wish him a swift recovery. But there were also several who wished for the exact opposite.
What Are The Policies Placed Down by Facebook and Twitter?
On Friday, a spokesperson from Facebook stated that any such posts which violated the user policies of this social media conglomerate would be removed immediately. Liz Bourgeois mentioned that Facebook would be actively removing posts that had death threats or contained posts that were targeted directly at Donald Trump- most of which asked for his death. This involved commenting on his page, posting on his wall, and tagging him with such contents. On Friday night, Twitter too took a similar stance and mentioned that any tweet that wished or prayed for bodily harm, or death to anyone who was fighting this dreaded virus wouldn’t be allowed- and their posts instantly removed. But this didn’t necessarily mean suspension.
For quite some time, Twitter had been criticized for the leniency it showed to not being able to respond quickly and aptly to several reports of harassment and troublesome tweets on this social platform. This announcement, hence, was taken up with much hostility and criticism from four congresswomen belonging to the Democratic Party. These are Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley- people who have been regularly targeted with death threats, harassing tweets, and troublesome material. They criticized that the company didn’t apply its policies judiciously, uniformly, or consistently. Tlaib mentioned that the entire situation was quite messed up, for Twitter never took any steps against those who had been hurling death threats towards these four people.
Democratic Congresswomen Criticize the Social Media company to be biased Towards Donald Trump
Ocasio-Cortez inquired if this policy did not apply to them when she tweeted that they had no idea Twitter could have done the same for them what they had done for Donald Trump. For once, the social media company accepted the criticisms and confessed that they had been quite inconsistent regarding their policies, and vowed to implement it better. In yet another tweet, the social media platform mentioned that they have agreed to work much harder to implement every law uniformly.
With the entire country in quite a state of turmoil with the Presidential elections just down the road and their President suffering from coronavirus, it is quite understandable that people’s emotions have been heightened. Nonetheless, they need to keep a strict rein on their emotions, and not display it towards Donald Trump on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform.
