Twitter

Someone tweeted the exact same things as Donald Trump and was suspended after 2 days

Oonagh Keating. Updated June 3rd, 2020

A man with the Twitter name Bizarre Lazar has been conducting an interesting social experiment.

Since the end of May, on a second account he has called @SuspendThePres, he has been tweeting what Donald Trump tweets to see how Twitter would react.

He began with one of Trump’s tweets Twitter had hidden from view for violating their rules about glorifying violence.

We won’t share all of them, but here are a couple more, just so you can see what’s peppered across the President’s account.

On the 1st of June, he tweeted this

In two days, the exact same tweet that had merely been covered up when Trump posted it earned @suspendthepres a 12-hour suspension.

The experiment was widely shared, picking up reactions like these.

Former Republican Tom Nichols, despite being far from a fan of Trump, thought Twitter had got it right by not suspending the President’s account.

It’s just as well, because Twitter’s policy regarding objectionable content from world leaders was clearly laid out in a blog post in October 2019.

“If a Tweet from a world leader does violate the Twitter Rules but there is a clear public interest value to keeping the Tweet on the service, we may place it behind a notice that provides context about the violation and allows people to click through should they wish to see the content.”

They added a list of types of infringement which would result in action – unspecified – against the tweeter, regardless of their status.

Promotion of terrorism;

Clear and direct threats of violence against an individual;

Posting private information, such as a home address or non-public personal phone number;

Posting or sharing intimate photos or videos of someone that were produced or distributed without their consent;

Engaging in behaviors relating to child sexual exploitation;

Encouraging or promoting self-harm.

Bizarre Lazar intends to continue the study to see what else will get him suspended, but in the meantime, there is an unexpected bonus to what he’s doing.

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Source @SuspendThePres Image @SuspendThePres, YouTube