After President Trump reported that he and the first lady had tested positive for COVID-19, he started getting death wishes on 2 major social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter. We all know that COVID-19 has killed a lot of people, so when President Trump came out and said he was diagnosed, people on social media, predictably, had some horrible things to say to the leader of the free world.
Facebook said that their policy does not allow death threats or any type of harm wished upon an individual. The company said they want to allow discussion on their platform, which sometimes includes critical comments towards people who have a large public audience, but death threats to the president, or any individual, are supposed to be taken down.
Vice [1]
Some unknowable percentage of those people want him to die from the disease, and more than a handful of them have already explicitly said they hope the President dies from coronavirus on Twitter.
Twitter has a similar policy towards death threats. They still allow some enforcement on an issue, they will not take action on every tweet that includes Trump. They will remove content in a prioritized way that could cause real-world harm or that has a clear call to action in the tweet.
Vice [1]
“Content that wishes, hopes or expresses a desire for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against an individual is against our rules,” Twitter said in a statement.
Of course there are still tweets and Facebook posts that joke around about Trump and the first lady having COVID-19 since it was reported.
Thankfully, Trump and the first lady are doing well according to the White House. The President is currently at Walter Reed Medical Center just to be extra cautious, while Melania remains at the White House.
This piece was written by Jennifer Harris on October 3, 2020. It originally appeared in DrewBerquist.com [2] and is used by permission.
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