Twitter has not removed and will not remove President Donald Trump's recent tweets about North Korea that caused some uproar among Americans now that North Korea has accused Trump of officially declaring war.
Twitter To Update Its Public Policy Following President Trump's North Korea Comments
The company has explained that it won't remove the tweets because it does not violate the company's rules on "newsworthiness," which is part of its criteria when judging whether to keep a tweet or not.
Twitter also said it will update its public-facing rules to better reflect newsworthiness, saying the company aims for transparency and that it wants people to know what's happening in the world.
"We need to do better on this, and will."
Even in 2016, there's already been some controversy over whether Twitter should delete some of Trump's tweets or even ban him outright. This is because his tweets almost often insult and make accusations against other individuals. Twitter hasn't done anything, The Verge notes, but the issue resurfaced again recently after he tweeted the following:
"Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer!"
As mentioned above, North Korea took that statement as a "clear declaration of war." The New York Times now reports that on Monday, Sept. 25, North Korea said it has the right to shoot down American warplanes even if they were not in the country's airspace, following Trump's comments.
The White House denied Trump made such claims, saying the United States didn't declare war against North Korea. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, called the idea "absurd."
Even so, Twitter's announcement basically means that Trump's comments will still be up on Twitter, unless he deletes them, of course.
Should Twitter Ban President Trump?
Anything the president tweets is newsworthy, even late-night tweetstorms, so don't expect Twitter to remove any tweet from him anytime soon.
Of course, Twitter didn't actually say it wouldn't "ban" Trump, but don't expect that to become a possibility anytime soon either. Just think about the implications of Twitter banning the U.S. president — it would probably cause further divide in the country.
Thoughts about Twitter's stance on Trump's tweets? As always, feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
