Twitter didn’t take down President Trump’s tweet threatening North Korea “wouldn’t be around much longer” if it continued provocative statements because it’s newsworthy and in the public interest.
The company tweeted a statement about why it didn’t remove Trump’s tweet from late Saturday night warning North Korean diplomats to temper their statements or “they won’t be around much longer!”
That statement lead North Korea’s foreign minister to say the United States has declared war on North Korea and the Hermit Kingdom will shoot down bombers over the country.
Twitter said Trump’s tweet didn’t meet the conditions to be removed.
“Some of you have been asking why we haven’t taken down the Tweet mentioned here,” Twitter wrote in a statement posted to @Policy, linking to an NPR story about the tweet.”
“We hold all accounts to the same Rules, and consider a number of factors when assessing whether Tweets violate our Rules. 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.”
We hold all accounts to the same Rules, and consider a number of factors when assessing whether Tweets violate our Rules 2/6
— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) September 25, 2017
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 4/6
— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) September 25, 2017
We’ll continue to be guided by these fundamental principles 6/6
— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) September 25, 2017
