Twitter has censored a post by the president of the United States, this time for “a threat of harm against an identifiable group.” This despite the fact that this president routinely uses the popular social media platform to threaten to drop explosives on people in other countries without interference.
“We’ve placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our policy against abusive behavior, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group,” Twitter stated on the platform. “Per our policies, this Tweet will remain on the service given its relevance to ongoing public conversation. Engagements with the Tweet will be limited. People will be able to Retweet with Comment, but not Like, Reply, or Retweet it.”
“There will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone’ in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President,” Trump’s censored tweet reads. “If they try they will be met with serious force!”
The post now shows up on the president’s timeline like this:
I’ve been writing all month about the brutal authoritarian crackdown America’s militarized police state has been inflicting upon US protesters who’ve been demonstrating against police brutality these last few weeks, so obviously I object to the threat of further force upon these same protesters by this same armed goon patrol. But Twitter did not censor Trump’s tweet because of any “threat of harm against an identifiable group.”
Know how I know? Because Twitter has been allowing Trump to make far more deadly threats throughout his entire administration.
Earlier this year, for example, Trump threatened to bomb 52 Iranian sites, “some at a very high level and important to Iran and the Iranian culture”, if the Islamic Republic responded militarily to his insane drone assassination of its top military leader. The president explicitly threatened that “those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.”
Or in April of 2018 when Trump used the platform to issue a threat that he actually followed through with, tweeting “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’” Trump did indeed order airstrikes upon the Syrian government days later.
Or who could forget Trump repeatedly threatening North Korea with nuclear holocaust, tweeting “North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
Twitter consistently allows its platform to be used to issue explicit threats of western imperialists against targets of western imperialism, like when it allowed Senator Marco Rubio to openly threaten to do to Maduro in Venezuela what the US and its allies did to Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Gaddafi was brutally mutilated to death in 2011 by empire-backed insurgents under NATO air cover following a catastrophically devastating intervention that was launched on false humanitarian pretexts.
https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1099726515292508162
These are all clearly “a threat of harm against an identifiable group.” But, because it’s a threat to inflict mass murder upon foreigners and not a threat to use teargas and batons on Americans, Twitter is fine with it.
This is openly built into Twitter’s terms of service; the social media giant waves these deadly threats through using the dismissive and carefully selected phrase “saber-rattling”, despite the fact that this president has followed through with such threats and has demonstrated an absolute willingness to use deadly military force.
“Presently, direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter Rules,” Twitter says.
This deliberately crafted nonsensical distinction makes two things clear:
- Twitter did not censor Trump for “a threat of harm against an identifiable group”, but for vapid partisan reasons against a Republican president the platform’s leaders happen to personally dislike. It’s fine with mass military slaughter and doesn’t see its victims as fully human, because Democrats feel that way too.
- Twitter is, as we discussed recently, a tool of US imperialism. That’s why its censorship and purges consistently target governments which the US-centralized empire is working to topple while allowing the accounts of fake imperialist propaganda constructs like Bana Alabed and Heshmat Alavi to remain fully operational.
https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1275500569940176897
Twitter’s increasing censorship of Donald Trump will not hurt him politically, it will only inflame his support base who see themselves as the protectors of a president who is under constant attack by communists, Antifa, Satanists and pink-haired genderqueers who want to destroy statues of Jesus and then marry their sex toys in your local church. In fact the very last person in the world we should be worried about being censored is the man whose incredibly powerful office comes with its own built-in bully pulpit.
Rather, what we should be worried about is monopolistic and agenda-shaping Silicon Valley tech corporations enacting censorship with ever-increasing brazenness while demonstrating a clear and undeniable loyalty to the imperial war machine. The internet is playing a larger and larger role in the way people inform themselves about what’s going on in the world, and the lenses through which they perceive it are becoming more and more biased in favor of the bloodthirsty US power alliance.
Power is the ability to control what happens. Absolute power is the ability to control what people think about what happens. Our world does not widely understand this, and it is ruled by people who do. We’re going to have to change this if we’re to begin moving collectively toward health and harmony.
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31 responses to “Twitter Censors Trump For “Threat Of Harm”, Has No Problem With Threats To Bomb Foreigners”
I’m trying to see the big picture here.
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This morning, I was reading an article about global warming, the 6th great extinction and multiple tipping points.
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That is important, and urgent. Urgent as in “we have six months to fix it”.
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In that context, all this stuff seems kind of like a distraction. On the other hand, it’s somehow related. I’m wondering how fixating on Covid, Police Brutality, BLM, Twitter, Trump, etc is addressing the species survival issues? Is it advancing a truly revolutionary agenda that is going to ensure our survival or is it just diluting our energy and wasting important time? What’s the plan? 1. Riot and pull down statues 2. Defund the police 3. ??? 4. avert species extinction. or is it 1. Complain that the powerful don’t play fair. 2. Tell everyone you know about it. 3. ??? 4. avert species extinction. None of those plans look realistic to me. Nothing I have seen so far suggests that we are seeing a better society unfold. Or that species extinction can be averted.
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Back to the big picture. One strategy might be 1. What is the end-goal? 2. What needs to happen to bring that about? 3. What actions can I personally take to bring that about? If you can’t answer these questions than why assume the end-goal can be reached? Reality doesn’t ever stop to ask your opinion. It’s you that needs to find out how reality operates.
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Some weeks ago on this site there were discussions about the need for revolutionary action as apposed to developing a revolutionary consciousness. I still believe that without a radical shift in consciousness towards reality, any action you take will be ineffective (and easily co-opted). Part of developing a new consciousness is to personally resist attempts to control what you think about what is happening. Not other people, but you yourself. I suspect it is far too late to teach the majority how to think clearly, and far too late to try and get the already powerful to relinquish power.
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Whether that is pessimistic or not depends on your viewpoint. I believe that any positive action is worth taking for its own sake. Just don’t count on any particular outcome. The trick is to understand when an action is positive and when it’s not.
Again remember the sock-puppet show. Puppeteer: “Look! The racist is being censored!” Left side of the audience: “Oh yes, good! The censors are fair”. The right side of the audience: “Oh no! Our puppet is being bullied by the establishment!”
Smart and simple move to a) Strengthen the division of the audience in right & left. b) Make the left side support censorship & information monopoly against their own interest. c) Fool the right side to believe their puppet is not part of the establishment.
“pink-haired genderqueers who want to destroy statues of Jesus and then marry their sex toys in your local church”
Er, what!? I would walk this one back, Caitlin. You may usually typify Trump supporters correctly, I don’t know because I’m not one and am not deeply interested in grouping people anymore, but the egregious mislabeling of presumed groups of peoples by MSM AND independent writers is divisive.
That was not the main point of the article, but it jumped out at you.
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One of the reasons Twitter and other companies get away with censorship is because so many people don’t want to be exposed to anything that makes them feel uncomfortable. How does your comment fit into that dynamic? Are you okay with the bit about “communists, Antifa, Satanists”, but not the bit about “pink-haired genderqueers”? Are you questioning the veracity of Caitin’s remark or the wording of it? Would a Trump supporter be more triggered by the term “LGBTQIA+”, or by the image of “pink-haired genderqueers” demanding the right to “marry their sex toys in your local church”. Caitlin is pointing out the power of the potential backlash to such censorship, and you prove how powerful the imagery is. Personally, I was more concerned about the sentence that followed the one you objected to.
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You end by stating that Caitlin’s words are “an egregious mislabelling of presumed groups” and that it’s divisive. It’s not clear to me why that is. Could you expand on that part of it, please. Who is being mislabelled, and why is it divisive?
Watch out for the pink-haired genderqueers. They’re the ones who beat up elderly/disabled lesbians at Dyke Marches. Or throw books on the floor at a book fair because the books don’t agree with their point of view. Or TWEET about raping feminists or killing their children.
The increasing corporate censorship in the press and on social media is a symptom of what I see as the emerging Transnational Corporate Imperium. Today many Transnational Corporations are richer than most nations and may be considered privately owned global empires.
The new super-rich class of transnational capitalists who own and control these empires are working together to shift power away from sovereign national governments to transnational institutions they can control. The euphemism used to cloak private control of nominally Public Institutions is ‘independent’; meaning independent of public Control.
Like it or not this may be the emerging shape of the future of our world. The reason I say this is because almost no one sees it or is aware of it at all. The capitalist indoctrination and conditioning we all receive in childhood and the intense capitalist propaganda we are subjected to daily makes it almost impossible for our minds to perceive the threat that transnational capitalism presents.
We come here to be entertained by lines like this: “We love Twitter’s increasing censorship of Donald Trump will not hurt him politically, it will only inflame his support base who see themselves as the protectors of a president who is under constant attack by communists, Antifa, Satanists and pink-haired genderqueers who want to destroy statues of Jesus and then marry their sex toys in your local church.” But we also come here to be schooled by lines like this: “Power is the ability to control what happens. Absolute power is the ability to control what people think about what happens. Our world does not widely understand this, and it is ruled by people who do. We’re going to have to change this if we’re to begin moving collectively toward health and harmony.” Thank you, Caitlin, for making us smile and think at the same time–inching forward, post by post, the collective movement we must make not only to thrive but to survive. A beautiful example of what the Buddha called “good work, right livelihood.”
First quote should read: “Twitter’s increasing censorship of Donald Trump will not hurt him politically, it will only inflame his support base who see themselves as the protectors of a president who is under constant attack by communists, Antifa, Satanists and pink-haired genderqueers who want to destroy statues of Jesus and then marry their sex toys in your local church.” One of the most difficult things about getting old is continually screwing up what used to be easy to do, like cutting and pasting or proofreading. Still wish that Caitlin’s blog allowed editing after the fact.
Antifa acts like a fascist/communist organization. Any protester who disagree with its point-of-view is intimidated and/or attacked by its “goons.”
Is Antifa reallly a group or just a mindset?
Like BLM with no group/strcuture/leadership, all they are is instigators given a hige platformb y the media, in order to become one of the distractions from meaningful dialogue.
Shouldn’t every US citizen be Anti Fascist?
Antifa is not a group of Lone Rangers sharing a common goal of toppling the current “system.” It is organized and it is not interested in abiding by the law to accomplish its goals. “Cracking heads” is in its “tool bag.”
I’m antifa. I’m alone (not a ranger though).
How can BLM have no structure when the Ford Foundation gave it $100 million? Did FF just throw the money out the window?
Truth can easily withstand any scrutiny, argument, or criticism. It neither needs nor requires censorship to protect it. Lies do.
The current protests, and their common escalation into riot, have little foundation. I have heard exactly zero critic defending the action resulting in George Floyd’s death, in spite of the fact that Mr. Floyd was far from a saint. All parties appear to be in agreement there must be a restructuring of policing policy. Not satisfied with that, the protests have become cover for restructuring our entire culture, from the ground up. A culture that has resulted in the highest standard of living for the most people in the history of the species. There are faults in it, as there are in all systems. Faults which should be addressed, with caution and deliberation, not with wild unreasonable abandon. Tearing down statues of men who laid the foundation for that culture is despicable. They were guilty of many faults, as we all are. But their aspirations were noble. Who among us actually lives up to our aspirations?
Well said!
You are totally clueless as to what any of these protests are about. Or, you’re yet another boot licking authoritarian who supports police violence in all situations unless its target is a “saint.”
Only binary thinking can save us now!
So? And many good black folk who support BLM have no problem with bombing other countries or joining the military to go abroad and kill mostly brown people.
Twitter, google, facebook etc are just another arm of the MSM that makes up their rules as they go along. The world is literally losing its mind as the west begins to unwind. I knew people were ignorant and easily influenced but never in my wildest dreams did I think they were this bad. I am dumbfounded every tine I leave my house watching all these people wearing masks in 90 degree plus weather scared of their own shadow. It used to make me angry, now it just makes me sad. When anyone asks me why I dont wear a mask, I ask them to first tell me when they are going to take theirs off. So far I just get dumbfounded looks. They have no idea which means forever. Again sad.
As if wearing a mask during new/unknown deadly pandemic is not being cautious, conservative, and rather intelligent in the face of the unknown.
I don’t really feel like I lose my contitutional rights by wearing a mask in public, and I don’t know when if ever i will stop doing it.
Line up for your vaccination here please. Vaccination includes micro flourescent marking. You are now safe you may take off your mask. Also we will force the rest of humanity to be marked by vaccination all to keep you safe. Of course the dozens of other things that will kill you are no longer our or your concern now that we can scan you. Thank you for your gullibility and fear of the unknown. It has been very helpful. Please go home and never leave again. Basic income will be provided. Again thank you so much. Keep watching the MSM we will be sure to tell you what to think.
Haha!
Khatika,
I said I wear masks not that I will blindly step up and start taking whatever vaccines our corrupt government pushes.
Many of your comments are thoughtful and can create dialogue.
The above is troll like/comes off as you are brainwashed.
I said I wear a mask in public.
I don’t believe the MSM any more than I believe you.
I follow Cait for her perspective. The comments here are generally not ignorant… but well we all make mistakes.
Your actions speak otherwise. No amount of dialogue will matter to those who fear the unknown. When my daughter who works in a hospital ER of one of the 10 largest cities in America tells me they are being overwhelmed by covid I will listen. Instead she says they have not had a single case and have dismantled their covid isolation unit. We supposedly live in a state that is a so called MSM hot spot. Reality vs rumor.
wait until your daughter tells you to worry then, I don’t care
And there, Ms Johnstone, is the ” re-election strategy ” of the Donald Trump campaign. Joe Biden is kept in his cellar out of sight; but the TV screens are full of rioting protesters that ” need law and order ” administered to them. Donald Trump wants them jailed for burning the flag and ten years for messing with a statue. After the November election is over and Donald Trump gets four more years; everyone on his ” enemies list ” will be hunted down and severely dealt with. The history of humanity is full of despots ” eliminating enemies ” by the thousands and sometimes millions; Donald Trump is just getting started. It would not surprise me if he got the United States Congress to name him ” President For Life ” and throw the entire U.S. constitution into the dust bin of history.
I would have said years ago people were not that ignorant to be so easily influenced. No more. America has been thoroughly dumbed down.
Americans don’t read! And reading a BOOK is next to impossible for most. Try reading “Against Our Better Judgment” by Alison Weir. The PRIMARY TEXT of her book goes from the front cover to the end of page 92, and the book is small, so there is NOT much to read on any given page. Reading her book will do you a world of good!
Here is another Trump threat made on twitter:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1058388700617498625/photo/1
So do we or do we not favor censorship by Twitter of violent threats? I admit I’m torn. Too many slippery slopes. But it seems if we do, how can we not let the corporate powers behind the app decide what’s allowed and what isn’t?
When you censor then you have stopped free speech. Who plays God and determines who gets censored. You dont like what I say. Too bad. I dont like what you say either but at least we were both free to say it. Not anymore.
LOL. But standing here in almost the middle of America it doesn’t seem like there are all that many fully human humans to begin with unless you count the Zionists because they are really the only truly humans here, they’re superhuman and that fully makes up for all us subhumans. So go Twitter that. Sounds a lot like figure.