After President Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19, Twitter was flooded with tweets from high-profile users hoping that he dies.
Twitter subsequently put out a statement warning that โtweets that wish or hope for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against anyone are not allowed and will need to be removed.โ
Now many Twitter users are outraged that they canโt wish for the Presidentโs death on Twitter with some blaming โGamergateโ and Twitterโs failure to censor enough in the past as the source of their frustration.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar tweeted a sarcastic โExcuse Me?โ GIF questioning the decision.
Omarโs Senior Communications Director Jason Slevin complained that Omar โgets actual death threats on this platform all the time and Twitter doesnโt do shit.โ
Author and indie game developer Zoรซ Quinn claimed that Twitter had ignored the casework she brought to Twitter as a โtrained, trusted partnerโ in their internal processes and wrote that she was โrooting againstโ Trump. She followed up with: โGOD wouldnโt it be just the BIGGEST SHAME if jack got it next? Absolutely terrible.โ Quinn is likely referencing Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
And game developer and writer Leena van Deventer responded to the announcement by calling Twitter โfeckless cowardsโ and blaming Gamergate.
Ironically, some of those complaining about Twitter restricting their ability to tweet wishes or hopes that the President will die are vocal advocates of Big Tech censorship and call for these platforms to remove negative posts that are directed at them.
In 2015, Quinn called for the United Nations to censor the internet by shutting down โbad actors and bad faith websitesโ and cited โindividuals on services like YouTubeโ who make a living โharassingโ her.
Quinn didnโt name any of these bad actors or individuals and let people see for themselves whether these so-called harassment videos were actually just criticism that she wanted to be scrubbed from the internet.
Omar is also a supporter of social media censorship and has called for Trumpโs tweets to be removed when theyโre directed at her. She has also complained that Trumpโs Twitter account hasnโt been fully suspended.
These complaints about not being able to wish for someoneโs death on Twitter come days after a new survey revealed a worrying trend โ that almost one in five students are fine with deploying violence to shut down speech that they donโt agree with.
Earlier this week, Twitterโs former CEO Dick Costolo also advocated for violence against people that express opposing viewpoints when he tweeted that those who donโt conform to activism in business will be shot and that heโd โhappily provide the video commentary.โ