Twitter Should (and Could) Ban Donald Trump

Twitter has long brimmed with overactive, abusive trolls, but for many, the harassment, abuse, and threats on the platform worsened and became more numerous during the 2016 presidential election. Indeed, President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign was dominated by hateful speech and threats against vulnerable populations. Sadly, his supporters followed suit in real life as well as online.

After outcry from Twitter users regarding regular abuse on the platform and a rise in trolling by so-called "Alt-Right" users, Twitter recently announced that it would toughen its stance on abuse, hate speech, and threats. It followed through by suspending prominent white nationalists from the platform. According to the company, its standards apply to every account, leading many users to wonder why Donald Trump’s account hasn’t been suspended given his problematic tweets.

Donald Trump should be suspended from Twitter, according to the rules Twitter itself has laid out for users on its platform. His use of his account break a number of Twitter’s rules as it pertains to abuse and harassment. For that reason, I have started a petition urging Twitter to suspend Trump’s account.

While Twitter’s policy is not to comment publicly on individual accounts, a spokesperson who spoke to Motherboard for a story published last Thursday made it clear that, at least in theory, nobody is exempt from the company’s rules of engagement.

Those rules regarding harassment and abuse are pretty cut and dry. According to Twitter, users may not “incite or engage in the targeted abuse or harassment of others.” In terms of what qualifies as abuse, Twitter outlines a few criteria:

    “if a primary purpose of the reported account is to harass or send abusive messages to others;

    if the reported behavior is one-sided or includes threats;

    if the reported account is inciting others to harass another account; and

    if the reported account is sending harassing messages to an account from multiple accounts.”

Regarding “hateful conduct,” Twitter’s rules state: “You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.”

There’s no denying that Trump’s Twitter antics can be read as targeted harassment or incitement of harassment, which are prohibited under Twitter’s policies. Trump has not only viciously attacked individual members of the press and politicians, but also gone after private citizens. This is not only abnormal for an elected official, but it seems to stand in direct violation of Twitter’s rules.

Take for example Trump’s infamous 5 a.m. tweet about former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who he falsely accused of being featured in sex tape. Trump also targeted a college student who attended a campaign event and questioned him about his treatment of women last year, using his Twitter account to call her an “arrogant young woman” for deigning to ask a him, then a candidate for the presidency, whether or not her reproductive rights would be protected if he were elected. Just last Wednesday, Trump used his Twitter account to go after Chuck Jones, president of the United Steelworkers 1999 and a representative for union workers at the Carrier air conditioner plant in Indianapolis.

“Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers,” Trump tweeted. “No wonder companies flee country!”

-Complex