Two major social media platforms had decidedly different responses to numerous death wishes being made against President Donald Trump after he said that he tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday.
When asked by Vice News about their policy related to death wishes against the president, Twitter said they would apply the same standard they have had about other death threats.
“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 on Friday.
Vice noted that Facebook makes a distinction between threats against public figures and those against private individuals.
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Facebook has explained that the platform “distinguish[es] between public figures and private individuals because we want to allow discussion, which often includes critical commentary of people who are featured in the news or who have a large public audience.”
To that end, they will take down posts that link the president in the comment containing a death wish, but not necessarily any other kind.
“For public figures, we remove attacks that are severe as well as certain attacks where the public figure is directly tagged in the post or comment,” they said.
Twitter still allowed for the possibility of selective enforcement on the issue.
They added that they “won’t take enforcement action on every Tweet,” and instead will prioritize “the removal of content when it has a clear call to action that could potentially cause real-world harm.”
Some less civil critics of the president have already taken to social media to wish harm on him and the first lady, while others have used the moment to crack jokes and quips at their expense.
The White House says the president and the first lady are experiencing mild symptoms from the coronavirus. Trump was sent to Walter Reed Medical Center out of an abundance of caution, and his live campaign events were canceled, or changed to virtual events.
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