Wanted to pull together some threads here. Joan Walsh put it out publicly: Trump is an internet troll, who just happens to be our POETUS.
So there it is: Our future president is an Internet troll, staying up at night tweeting about debunked right-wing conspiracy theories. He followed all of that up with a Tweet about Cuba on Monday morning, and threatened “if Cuba won’t make a better deal…I will terminate deal.” Oh, and did I tell you the part where he kicked off this latest Twitter madness by gleefully declaring early Saturday morning, “Fidel Castro is dead!” This is not how a president conducts foreign policy.
Yesterday, Donald Trump tweeted his most dangerous tweets yet. In the minds of his fans, and by their hands, they are like shouting “fire!” in a crowded movie house. You know them:
You can put these together with past tweets that were abusive towards a group — Mexican-Americans for example — as was done convincingly by Melanie Ehrenkranz here:
Donald Trump is an internet troll with a history of bigoted, misogynistic, Islamophobic attacks. He uses his online influence as a weapon, reportedly threatening to sic his "beautiful Twitter" (and the army of white supremacist trolls who follow it) on people who cross him.
Twitter's hateful conduct policies exist to deal with users like Trump, and he has apparently violated the rules many times over. Still, it would be surprising — and historic — if Twitter made a move to suspend him: @realDonaldTrump, of course, is now our president-elect.
On Tuesday, Twitter announced an overhaul to its harassment system, releasing new tools for users to wield against trolls. Within a day, several powerful right-wing influencers found their accounts deactivated — such as white supremacist alt-right leader Richard Spencer and former Business Insider CTO Pax Dickinson.
Ms. Ehrenkranz put out a useful tweet on this issue earlier today:
So suppose we take this idea seriously? Getting Trump banned from Twitter as an abusive troll? I have heard objections — “Oh if he tweets, we know what he is thinking!” “Oh, he will just take it undercover then!” “Oh, is that not a violation of freedom of speech?”
My thoughts:
1) Trump likes twitter because it gives him a huge megaphone where he does not have to interact with the normal media channels, and he can go directly to his fans. If he gets banned, he still has to get his words out. It would force him to find other routes. Like, you know, press conferences?
2) Trump will not take it undercover. He has narcissistic personality disorder! He wants to be heard by everyone when he wants it! If Twitter is taken from him he will have to find another route. Facebook is not as good in this way, but even if he goes via facebook he has to live by facebook rules.
3) NO, it is not a violation of freedom of speech because (a) Twitter is a corporate space, (b) even given that, as I argued above, his election fraud tweets are the equivalent of shouting “fire” in a crowded movie house. He keeps that up, someone really could get hurt.
So, what are your thoughts?