Twitter refuses to silence controversial world leaders after calls to block Trump

Twitter Inc on Friday reiterated its stance that accounts belonging to world leaders have special status on the social media network, pushing back against users who have called on the company to banish U.S. President Donald Trump.


"Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate," Twitter said in a post on a corporate blog.

Twitter had already said in September that "newsworthiness" and whether a tweet is "of public interest" are among the factors it considers before removing an account or a tweet.

The debate over Trump's tweeting, though, raged anew after Trump said from his @realDonaldTrump account on Tuesday that he had a "much bigger" and "more powerful" nuclear button than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Critics said that tweet and Trump's continued presence on the network endanger the world and violate Twitter's ban on threats of violence. Some users protested at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters on Wednesday.

Twitter responded in its blog post that even if it did block a world leader, doing so would not silence that leader.
 (france24/Reuters)
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