Know Your Meme

Twitter Won't Allow You To Tweet Saying You Hope The President Dies

October 5th, 2020 - 2:37 PM EDT by Adam Downer

14 comments

(Getty Images)

Donald Trump's Positive COVID-19 Test has been basically the only thing anyone on Twitter could talk about over the past few days, and while there's been plenty of schadenfreude going, with many mocking the President's for previously downplaying the coronavirus pandemic, Twitter has stepped in to say you can't post tweets wishing for his untimely demise.

Shortly after Trump made his earth-shattering diagnosis on the platform, Twitter clarified that "tweets that wish or hope for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against anyone are not allowed and will need to be removed. this does not automatically mean suspension."

The timing of Twitter's statement clarifying their rules seemed disingenuous to myriad black people and women who have been dealing with death threats on Twitter for years. Politicians Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib tweeted exasperatedly about Twitter choosing now to clarify their statements considering the death threats they regularly receive.

Malorie Blackman and director Ava Duvernay expressed exasperation about the policy considering the death threats they've received during their time on Twitter.

Twitter's apparently sudden enforcement of their anti-death threat rule has also had a Streisand Effect on the platform, as there's been an uptick in people creatively finding ways to put their hope for the President's untimely end in tweets.

At the time of writing, President Trump is still in Walter Reed Hospital and has said he will be discharged at 6:30 P.M. today.

Share Pin

Comments 14 total

MK

Oct 06, 2020 at 04:21PM EDT

Adam, I know you have good intentions, but by covertly injecting identity politics and acting as if this policy clarification was only "disingenuous to black people and women who have been dealing with death threats on Twitter for years", you only serve to exacerbate the divide between groups of Americans, ultimately resulting in further extremism and worse conditions for everyone.

I know that you want to defend historically marginalized groups and that you are "only reporting on what happened", but it is just simply not the case that only these individuals receive death threats. While it is true that you did not explicitly make this statement, (that only these individuals receive death threats), you did focus on the fact that women and people of color were "surprised", thus indirectly agreeing with these tweets that accentuate identity politics and resentment.

2

MK

Oct 06, 2020 at 04:22PM EDT MK

Were people other than women and black people "surprised" by this policy clarification who have also received death threats? Yes, there certainly were. So why single out these groups instead of approaching this issue from a more neutral angle? Why emphasize race or sex in this situation when there is no evidence that Twitter has discriminately ignored death threats towards women and black people when compared to the death threats towards other groups? Why is the default hypothesis that Twitter wouldn't have made the same clarification had this occurred with President Obama in office? What data is there to support that belief other than the subjective perception of a few individuals?

Sorry for the rant, but I would honestly like to do anything I can to diminish the increasing divide between the many groups of Americans, and potentially come to understand your perspective if I am misinterpreting things.

2

Dracorex

Oct 06, 2020 at 12:29PM EDT Always Right

I know you're talking about the mod, but I reflexively think I'm being referred too whenever someone mentions an Adam.

#NotAllAdams

0

Alex Reynard

Oct 06, 2020 at 12:24AM EDT

"myriad black people and women who have been dealing with death threats on Twitter for years."

…do you seriously think that only black people and women get death threats? Really? Seriously?

19

Dracorex

Oct 06, 2020 at 12:59AM EDT Alex Reynard

For some people, it's all about themselves.

2

Alex Reynard

Oct 06, 2020 at 02:37AM EDT Dracorex

For others, it's all about the nookie.

1

firngers

Oct 05, 2020 at 08:57PM EDT

August Ames will be glad to hea-- oh, wait.

1

Pokejoseph64

Oct 05, 2020 at 08:11PM EDT

Oh so NOW you decide to tackle them

But only if they’re about a specific person who did more harm than good

-1

Zigzagoon

Oct 05, 2020 at 08:09PM EDT

well yeah, of course twitter is going to care more about death wishing against the potus more than anyone else on the platform (not just black and brown women… gotta shove identity politics in there somehow ig). especially when everyone is tweeting about at the same time, and where its easier to search about things about trump on its algorithm.

10

Mzuark

Oct 05, 2020 at 09:34PM EDT Zigzagoon

Because politics have become such a joke of late, I think people have forgotten that wishing death or even threatening POTUS in some case is a pretty serious matter.

3

Zigzagoon

Oct 06, 2020 at 12:12AM EDT Mzuark

It's more likely they were ignorant of it in the first place.

1

Square Memester

Oct 05, 2020 at 07:56PM EDT

Of course, Zoe Quinn has to make it about herself.

3

Anyone00

Oct 05, 2020 at 07:21PM EDT

Because I could not find that one classroom sketch from The State:

3

Know Your Meme

  Like Page   1.8M likes
pinterest