[ad_1]
WASHINGTON: When US President Donald Trump leaves the Oval Office on January 20, don’t expect him to disappear from your Twitter account.
Trump is likely to become even less restricted on social media, putting intense pressure on Twitter and Facebook to handle his most explosive and rule-breaking claims. Under fire from Republicans for allegedly censoring conservative views and Democrats for failing to aggressively stem the flow of disinformation, popular social media platforms are in a tight spot that, experts say, could become even more dangerous. .
Trump has said that social media has been critical to his political success, allowing him to bypass traditional media and directly reach nearly 90 million followers on Twitter. There is no reason to believe that someone as advertising-conscious as Trump will cut back on his posts while navigating a world where he is no longer at the center of the political universe. If anything, Trump could become more provocative in his effort to stay relevant in Republican politics and perhaps lay the groundwork for another presidential nomination, experts said.
“She will continue to use Twitter to raise campaign funds, to continue to ‘raise friends’ and fundraise, and also to have those conversations with the opposition,” said Jennifer Edwards, executive director of the Tarleton State University-based Institute for Social Media Research. . Twitter could even “jumpstart your next step toward the 2024 campaign,” he added, if you choose to run again.
Like other political figures, Trump has used his Facebook and Twitter accounts to announce political positions, mark holidays and push for legislation. But he was also one of the first world leaders to turn his diet into a weapon. Critics argue that many of his missives have gone too far, citing examples of his unpresidential (“little Adam Schitt”), incoherent (“negative press covfefe”), and petty (he called his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, “a disaster that has let us all down”).
His tweets have also been dangerous, according to Democrats, election experts and public health officials say. Trump has downplayed the risks of the coronavirus, issued false claims about the accuracy of voting by mail and promoted fringe conspiracy theories.
Experts see no reason for Trump to back down.
“Being in politics, being in the election campaign, being at the beginning of this administration, they were able to do a better job of managing it on Twitter,” said Yu Ouyang of Purdue University Northwest, a co-author of Trump, Twitter, and American democracy. “But I think they have gradually lost control. And if he’s no longer in office … because there are fewer people helping him manage his account, he will actually come back to himself on Twitter. “
In recent months, Twitter has more aggressively moderated Trump’s tweets by adding warnings that the president’s claims are in dispute. Facebook is following a similar tact, albeit with softer language.
Both platforms have come under pressure to suspend Trump. Twitter recently banned Steve Bannon, a former Trump senior adviser, after he called for the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert.
“According to the terms of service … there are definitely things that Trump has already said that would take me off their platforms,” said Dominic DiFranzo, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at Lehigh University whose work has scoured news. false. People have been removed from Twitter for much less than threatening nuclear war with North Korea, as a Trump tweet seemed to do, DiFranzo added.
Twitter has long advocated not censoring Trump by citing exception provisions in the rules that generally exempt public officials from being banned or from having posts removed. On January 20, Trump will lose those protections. But experts say that Twitter and Facebook are unlikely to seek to banish such a popular figure from their platforms, no matter how inflammatory their posts are. Spokespersons for Twitter and Facebook did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed Tuesday during a Senate hearing on social media moderation policies that Trump will no longer receive such protection once Biden is inaugurated. “If an account suddenly becomes … no longer a world leader, that particular policy disappears,” Dorsey explained.
But experts said they don’t see Twitter ever taking such a step. Trump generally falls short of saying something that could lead to Twitter deleting a tweet or blocking his account, they said, and especially with the looming possibility of a Trump campaign in 2024, it will be easy for Twitter not to press the issue.
They also noted that Trump has popular assistants and surrogates who could send messages if he lost @realDonaldTrump or if tweets were censored. “The people who work for him or who are inspired by him,” DiFranzo said, “will continue to exist.”
Facebook seems less prone than Dorsey to clamp down. At the same Senate hearing, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that while the platform has some policy exceptions for politicians, the vast majority of the site’s rules “have no journalistic value or political exception.”
“If the president or anyone else is spreading hate speech or inciting violence, or posting content that delegitimizes the election or valid forms of voting, they will be treated the same as anyone else who says those things,” Zuckerberg said. “And that will continue to be the case.”
Both platforms have many incentives to back down, said Yvonne Mulhern, co-director of the Social Media Research Institute.
Trump is “helping social media companies make money, so I think they’re going to be hesitant to censor him,” Mulhern said, and “if he plans to run again, they’ll want to be more careful and not antagonize him.” He could also mobilize his basis for boycotting a platform or harassing its employees, he added.
And if there’s one lesson from the past four years, it’s to expect a storm of tweets from him, the first of many to come when he returns to civilian life, around noon on January 20, 2021. – Los Angeles Times / Tribune News Service
[ad_2]
