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Home / Business

Twitter won't rule out ban on Trump

By Nick Whigham
news.com.au·
3 Dec, 2016 10:11 PM3 mins to read

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A performer wears a Donald Trump mask during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2016 in Cannes, France. Photo / Getty

A performer wears a Donald Trump mask during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2016 in Cannes, France. Photo / Getty

Imagine a world where the President of the United States is such an antagonistic bully that he gets banned from social media.

Well, apparently that's not such a far-fetched idea these days.

Twitter has been on a highly publicised bent lately banning the accounts of prominent "alt-right" figures, a majority of whom are ardent fans of President-elect Donald Trump.

The social media platform which began by presenting itself as the internet's bastion of free speech (literally, "the free speech wing of the free speech party") did so on the grounds that account holders were abusing other users or inciting harmful rhetoric.

Astoundingly, yet unsurprisingly, very similar accusations have been levelled at Donald Trump who uses Twitter like your drunken uncle who found a megaphone and decided to yell his every angry thought from the top of a hill.

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Mr Trump regularly uses Twitter to stoke conspiracy theories, attack journalists and sometimes vilify certain people - behaviour not too dissimilar to proponents of his who have been banned from the site.

And it seems Twitter might just agree.

Online magazine Slate pressed both Twitter and Facebook on whether they would ban the incoming president from their respective social media platforms, if they deemed it necessary.

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Facebook, which was met with a barrage of criticism earlier this year when it pulled down an iconic photo of a the "napalm girl" during the Vietnam War due to its pornography guidelines, said it would not consider banning Mr Trump.

For Mark Zuckerberg's team the inherent newsworthiness and import of presidential posts, and the fact that many users agree with them, means Facebook would never ban the account belonging to the so-called "leader of the free world".

Twitter on the other hand, was far less committed to the sanctity of the Oval Office.

Tellingly, the company wrote in an e-mail to Slate's senior technology writer Will Oremus that Mr Trump was not above Twitter law.

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"The Twitter rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct, and multiple account abuse, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies," a company spokesperson wrote.

When pressed further on whether Mr Trump would be suspended for breaking that code of conduct, Twitter had another noncommittal, but revealing response.

"The Twitter rules apply to all accounts, including verified accounts," the company said.

Surely the President of the country would have to do something pretty bad to be booted from the social media platform, but Mr Trump is well-known for his vindictive temper.

Whether he's celebrating the divorce of media baroness Arian Huffington, making thinly-veiled racist remarks, going on an angry 3am Twitter rant or starting an online beef with comedian Jon Stewart, the President-elect is famous for his Twitter bullying - something his wife has ironically chosen to stamp out as First Lady.

Mr Trump's actions on Twitter are arguably not that far from the likes of notorious supporters Milo Yiannopoulos and Tila Tequila who have both been banned for basically following his lead, albeit more aggressively.

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So it's certainly not inconceivable that Mr Trump could overstep the line and feel the wrath of the famously left-leaning Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey with some particularly uncouth Twitter comments.

As if it's not already weird enough, imagine a world where Twitter banned the US President.

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