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Some of Trump’s tweets clearly violate Twitter’s own standards, but Twitter takes no action, while suspending or banning other users for less offensive posts. Here’s a lively discussion with Mark Karlin of Buzzflash and Russ Baker of WhoWhatWhy.
President Donald Trump is the most visible user of Twitter, and has more than 63 million followers. Many recent tweets employ hate speech, personal attacks, and smears that appear to violate Twitter’s own standards. But the company has made no effort to rein in the president’s offensive speech, even as other users have been suspended, or banned, for less.
In this podcast, we’re joined by Mark Karlin, editor of Buzzflash, and Russ Baker, editor-in-chief of WhoWhatWhy.
Karlin, who recently posted an article calling on Twitter to ban Trump, notes that one-time Trump advisor and recently-turned-foe Anthony Scaramucci was suspended from the platform for 12 hours recently, for reportedly fat-shaming his former boss in a tweet.
This podcast was originally posted at WhoWhatWhy 
Karlin quotes from Twitter’s policies that state that users “may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone” and “may not promote violence against, threaten or harass other people,” and argues that Trump has repeatedly crossed these lines. Baker comments on Trump’s skillful use of tweets to his base, and suggests that the company would face financial losses and uncertain regulatory responses if Twitter were to discipline Trump.
We also discuss two other tweetworthy topics: (1) the recent federal appeals court ruling that it’s illegal for Trump to block Twitter users who criticize his tweets and (2) the new White House project to attack journalists who write reports critical of the administration, by revealing embarrassing tweets made by the reporters.