Twitter on Monday explained why it will not be deleting President Trump’s tweet threatening North Korea, saying it did not violate the company’s rules after weighing its “newsworthiness.”
“We hold all accounts to the same Rules, and consider a number of factors when assessing whether Tweets violate our Rules,” Twitter’s Policy account said in a six-part Twitter thread.
Twitter said “newsworthiness” is part of the criteria it takes into account when judging whether to keep a tweet or not, saying that keeping the public informed is an integral role that the platform serves to fulfill.
{mosads}”Among the considerations is ‘newsworthiness’ and whether a Tweet is of public interest. This has long been internal policy and we’ll soon update our public-facing rules to reflect it. We need to do better on this, and will. Twitter is committed to transparency and keeping people informed about what’s happening in the world. We’ll continue to be guided by these fundamental principles,” the statement continued, after some had inquired whether this threat of violence would violate Twitter’s policy and be grounds for removal.
The statement comes after the president threatened to end the existence of the hermit kingdom, adding a new layer of fear on top of the already heightened tensions that a conflict could ignite between the two countries.
“Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!” Trump tweeted Saturday, the latest remark in a series of hostile comments and subsequent responses that have been lobbed back and forth between the two countries.
Trump regularly uses the social media platform to attack those who have crossed him, push his agenda, make statement or call attention to certain issues.