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Those who express publicly on Twitter the hope that someone will die or suffer serious harm could be suspended from the site, the social network announced, shortly after the news broke that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has Covid-19 .
Friday’s announcement came as Trump was taken to the hospital “as a precaution,” where he is expected to receive “a few days of treatment.”
The disease has killed more than 213,000 people in the US, and after news of the president’s infection broke, some people explicitly said on Twitter that they hoped the disease would cause their death.
The announcement of the new policy by Twitter’s communications team has led to fierce accusations of double standards in enforcing the rules, as the site is well known for being plagued with aggressive abuse.
Many people have wondered why the president’s health has been the problem that prompted the company to clarify its new rules, which have reportedly been in effect since April.
It also comes after Trump himself retweeted a video in late May of a right-wing activist claiming that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,” and that he is still active.
Responding to a Vice article titled “Twitter says you can’t tweet that you expect Trump to die from Covid”, the communications team of the social network He said: “Tweets that wish or expect death, serious bodily harm or fatal illness against * anyone * are not allowed and should be removed. This does not automatically mean a suspension. “
The message was received with disbelief by people who have been victims of incessant abuse. Many have responded to the message saying that they have received “daily” death threats on the platform for several years.
“So … you want to tell us that you could have done this the whole time?” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who last year said she often starts her day by reading the death threats sent to her, tweeted.
Ilhan Omar, a black congresswoman who has also spoken out about the daily death threats she receives on the platform, responded with a gif that read, “DISCUSS?”
Malorie Blackman, former UK children’s laureate He said: “Weeks of death threats and serious threats against my family when I was Children’s Laureate resulted in Twitter going crazy. * sideways eyes in black woman * “.
A 2018 investigation by Amnesty International into the scale of abuse faced by US and British journalists and politicians on Twitter found the platform “is endemic to racism, misogyny and homophobia.”
“In 2017, 1.1 million abusive or problematic tweets were sent to women, according to research, an average of one every 30 seconds.”
The study found that black women were a disproportionate target, being 84 percent more likely than white women to be mentioned in “abusive or problematic tweets.”
In 2013, the US Secret Service investigated about 10 death threats a day against Barack Obama, and there were as many as 30,000 of those threats a day during the first year of his presidency, according to The New York Times.
The Independent has reached out to Twitter for comment.
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