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Twitter Says You Cannot Tweet That You Hope Trump Dies From COVID-19 308

Twitter told Motherboard that it will suspend people who openly hope Trump dies from the coronavirus, which he recently tested positive for and, as a result, was moved to Walter Reed hospital "out of an abundance of caution." Twitter referred to an "abusive behavior" rule that's been on the books since April. From the report: "Content that wishes, hopes or expresses a desire for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against an individual is against our rules," Twitter said in a statement. This rule will apparently apply to people who wish death on Trump, who is the single most powerful person in the world.

As Motherboard has previously reported, Facebook has different rules for speech that is focused on celebrities and public figures. Facebook says it "distinguish[es] between public figures and private individuals because we want to allow discussion, which often includes critical commentary of people who are featured in the news or who have a large public audience. For public figures, we remove attacks that are severe as well as certain attacks where the public figure is directly tagged in the post or comment." What this means is that it's OK to post on Facebook that you hope Trump dies, so long as you do not tag him in the post or "purposefully expose" him to "calls for death, serious disease, epidemic disease, or disability." Twitter makes no such distinction between public and private figures.
With that said, Twitter said that it "won't take enforcement action on every tweet. We're prioritizing the removal of content when it has a clear call to action that could potentially cause real-world harm."
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Twitter Says You Cannot Tweet That You Hope Trump Dies From COVID-19

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  • by dmay34 ( 6770232 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:30PM (#60566904)

    There are a number of prominent climate scientists that get right wing Proud Boy terrorists sending them death threats on each and every one of their tweets. Social media rules only go one way.

    • by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @10:24PM (#60567246) Journal

      IANAL, but I believe there's a legal distinction between death threats and mere wishes.

      "I hope you die" protected speech.

      "If you don't stop saying that, I'm going to kill you". NOT protected speech.

      For an example of things that Twitter is not required to publish, see this entire post. The 1A doesn't prohibit entities such as Twitter from having content guidelines. It prevents the government from doing so, and even that is not absolute as demonstrated by various obscenity cases, the "fighting words" doctrine and a few other things. In the USA though, speech is indeed very liberal. SCOTUS doesn't take 1A lightly, that's for sure.

  • Be oblique (Score:5, Funny)

    by davebarnes ( 158106 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:31PM (#60566908)

    I hope that Fat Donnie from Queens experiences life in a manner similar to Yuri Andropov

  • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:34PM (#60566920) Homepage Journal

    I hope he leads, follows, or gets out of the way.

    If he's not going to provide leadership, he should go.

    How he goes has been up to him. He's the one who's chosen to act like Covid doesn't exist.

  • by aberglas ( 991072 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:37PM (#60566928)

    Never has been. Not even close. He is hemmed in by a system that has been carefully designed to ensure that he is not the most powerful person in the world.

    The most powerful person is obviously Xi Jinping. Followed at some distance by Putin. And then maybe Modi.

    • by Z80a ( 971949 )

      Even Xi Jinping have people he has to report to, the ol "rules for rulers".
      Key people give you power, but if you go against em, you get replaced.
      No one have Freeza level of powers on this planet fortunately.

    • by GrahamJ ( 241784 )

      So we should hope they die too?

    • by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @09:12PM (#60567078)

      Strange, none of you said that when Obama was president. You guys blamed him for everything remember? I mean even Trump said Obama was responsible for every swine flu and ebola death (though no Americans died of Ebola acquired in the US). Now suddenly the presidency is powerless? Yet somehow he was taking credit for the 2019 economy and sleeping with Kim Jong Un? Credit Yes, Debit No?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • by PPH ( 736903 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @09:14PM (#60567090)

      First place: The General Secretary of the Central Committee of Antifa.

    • OK, Trump isn't all-powerful. The problem is most of what he has done has been in the wrong direction. His campaign rallies were so reckless they were illegal - and he bragged to his audience about it at the time.

      I mean, come on. This has little to do with any Constitutional Powers and checks and balances (which he has shown largely to be imaginary anyways). It's a cult.

  • I hope (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Leuf ( 918654 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:38PM (#60566934)

    That he gets sick enough to have this be a transformative experience for him and he becomes a nicer person.

    That his youngest kid still has a father.

    That his getting sick saves other people's lives.

    That whoever at Twitter who thinks they can tell me what I'm allowed to hope for also gets really sick.

    I'm against the death penalty for murderers so I'm not going to hope the president dies just because he's a jackass and had getting sick from this coming to him.

    • Re:I hope (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ameyer17 ( 935373 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:44PM (#60566958) Homepage

      I mean, I hope he gets really really sick, pulls through, perhaps with obvious but not crippling aftereffects. and convinces some of his death cult that this isn't a joke and it should be taken seriously.

      Especially since if he dies before noon on January 20, 2021, we end up with apocalypse fetishist Mike Pence as president.

  • Twitter Backs down (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cygnusvis ( 6168614 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:43PM (#60566954)
    Twitter will back down when their core decides to do it anyway and suddenly all thats left are moderates and right wing
  • How far "social media" has fallen over the course of just the last four years going from free speech advocates to dictators best friend for life.

  • What about (Score:5, Funny)

    by Austerity Empowers ( 669817 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:50PM (#60566984)

    - I hope he gets wrecked by the karma train
    - Thoughts and prayers for the liberal hoax
    - Looking forward to the bigliest after funeral party the world has ever known
    - Over 200,000 dead and counting on him!
    - The grim reaper just tweeted "Donald, Stand down and stand by"
    - Congrats on beating the 99.9....% odds, keep going!
    - Walter Reed just told us they're out of demon sperm, we're working to fluff Moscow Mitch but it's not looking good for you....
    - Better hope your nurse isn't loading that IV with bleach
    - I hope your supervising attendant Dr. Freeman, your immunologist Dr. Chang and your cardiologist Dr. Ortega aren't holding any grudges
    - Tiffany called, she wanted to thank you for writing her into the will at 100% of the estate, she's redecorating already.

    • by sit1963nz ( 934837 ) on Saturday October 03, 2020 @02:18AM (#60567584)
      Trumps Eulogy has a woking title of "One flu over the cuckolds nest"
      Donald has had breathing issues until a nurse took the pillow off his face
      Donald is being looked after by a proctologist... you know, someone that specialises in assholes
      Donald is the first to trial a new treatment, the other lab primates refused it.

      Conversation in heaven "Hey Death you botched it with the brother, now remember this one goes down, I don't want him here he already thinks he's me..."
  • by onyxruby ( 118189 ) <onyxruby@ c o m c a s t . net> on Friday October 02, 2020 @08:52PM (#60566990)

    Twitters double standards got exposed in a way that couldn't be swept under the carpet anymore. This one was simply too big to continue to let go, too many famous people virtue signaling for his death to be ignored. Don't worry, they will go back to their normal double standards when it is something less blatant like a wishing for genocide, rape or murder of people that aren't world leaders.

    • by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @09:58PM (#60567204)

      Telling laid off coal workers to learn to code was just fine. Telling that to journalists was “hate speech”.

      • I've reported literal child pornography on Twitter and it didn't get removed until I sent a message to the FBI a fortnight later. Meanwhile me saying "Supporting Greta while you cannot name a single climatologist shows your hypocrisy" was acted upon within an hour.

        Fuck twitter. Social media sites need to be forced by law to apply their rules evenly.

  • It sounds like Twitter is purifying history. I think future historians would appreciate seeing the good, the bad and the ugly. As it is they will probably not speak kindly of us, and our desire to hide what is uncomfortable.
  • by monkeyzoo ( 3985097 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @09:01PM (#60567026)

    Despite any personal or political differences, we should all endeavor to show the Trump family the same amount of sympathy and respect that they showed the McCain family.

  • by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @09:04PM (#60567044)

    When John McCain died a lot of popular right wing Trump-endorsed nutcases such as Michael Savage and Alex Jones expressed happiness. They did they same thing when Ted Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. Now the right wing takes when fringe leftists are saying and claiming it's the mainstream view of the left. If you go on any right wing forums you'll find plenty of nuts spewing worse and more vicious venom at liberals.

  • Guess I'll do it here then.

  • Wow!! I'm astonished. Even if I was Democrat I'd pray for my President to recover. It makes me sick when people think it's all right to wish him dead. And for them to use "freedom of speech" to justify it is just beyond imagination. If someone you love contracts covid, what do you say to people who want your loved one die? Do you still think it's their right to freedom of speech?

    Those people who wish our President dead, you're traitors. I'm not implying, I'm calling you traitors to your face. If you don'
    • by Corbets ( 169101 )

      If you don't live in the US, I really don't care because your opinion is irrelevant.

      Wow. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, that an uneducated American would espouse an opinion like that. The rest of us never realized that many of you see yourselves as the center of the universe. Headline news!

      Anyway, I’m curious. I’m an American, but I moved to a first world country. Does my opinion matter?

      • I started my sentence with "Those people who wish our President dead". That means I addressed those people. Are you saying you're among them?
    • I hate the guts of him, for he is not stupid just vile.

      But you are right - I do not wish him death, just a 4 weeks serious illness from which I hope he fully recovers (esp mentally) to face election fallout.

    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      Personally, I just want it to get bad enough to scare some reality into him (and some humility, but that may be too much to hope for), followed by recovery. Thousands of lives may depend on that happening.

  • Then why didnt twitter sensor all those moronic Trump tweets when he lied about how serious the virus is? Or lies about global warming? Or lies about the economy? Or promotes one of a thousand proven wrong conspiracy theories? Or when Trump promotes racism or xenophobia, homophobia, or any number of his constant lies? phuck twitter. I'm off.
  • by 4wdloop ( 1031398 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @09:49PM (#60567178)

    Can I tweet the wish he further progress in his retardation? Oh...wait, that may not be possible, eh?

    Actually, I hope he is fine and dandy, after a prolong debilitating illness (say 4 weeks please?).

  • "... Trump, who is the single most powerful person in the world.

    Dear Gods, someone didn't just drink the Kool Aid, they had a full transfusion of it. ... And then they took a bath in it as well

  • I understand blocking threats, but beyond that let people speak, using their REAL name. Let us all see the content of their character.

  • by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @10:33PM (#60567264)
    I like people who don't get COVID-19.
  • It's rather telling of a society when you have to implement rules like this in the first place.

  • I want him to live a long, healthy life, so he can enjoy being completely and totally discredited, disgraced, and disregarded, never taken seriously by anyone ever again.
  • What if... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dark.nebulae ( 3950923 ) on Friday October 02, 2020 @10:57PM (#60567310)

    What if one were to say they hoped every republican that attended the super spreader supreme court nomination event, the one where no one was wearing masks, no social distancing, lots of handshakes and hugs, what if one were to say that they all needed to be visited by karma and apparently she's already come knocking...

    If you don't single out the Prez as the only stupid one, would twitter be okay with that?

  • by Whateverthisis ( 7004192 ) on Saturday October 03, 2020 @12:08AM (#60567440)
    This seems like a generally left-leaning population on Slashdot; why would you want this? Look at the politics here: the only thing going for Biden is that he's not Trump. Biden's best chance at winning is the Trump voters who are pissed off at him. However if Trump dies, Pence takes over. Pence is seen as an acceptable Trump; all the values that Trump claims with none of the obnoxious baggage. Biden has to step up his game and define himself if Trump dies because he has "I'm not Trump" platform evaporates without Trump.
  • by Martin S. ( 98249 ) on Saturday October 03, 2020 @04:13AM (#60567742) Journal

    I'm not a Trump supporter, not in the slightest, in fact his supporters will likely be spitting rage and label me a very dirty commie, marxist, socialist idiot after the've read this.

    No, not because I'm a nice person either.

    I know I'm not. I want him to suffer in great distress on a ventilator for weeks, right until the point he is humiliated at the polls. Then I want him to recover and live long enough to face trial. To know that he is a huge loser who will stand as warning for generations to come that his experiment with new age fascism [wikipedia.org] is abject failure. I know what Fascism is, my grandfather, a WW2 veteran that fought fascism made sure I knew true fascism when when I saw it.

    Then and only then will I be content, only then will I smile knowing justice has been served.

  • by cas2000 ( 148703 ) on Saturday October 03, 2020 @10:12AM (#60568246)

    It's wrong to hope for Trump to die from covid-19. No matter the delicious irony, it's very very naughty to hope that.

    Instead, you should pray that he dies. That's not hope, that's a sincere expression of your religious belief, and it would be religious discrimination to deny you the right to use religious belief to bypass company policies - or even laws - that you don't like.

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