Digital Smarts - Some Tweets are More “Newsworthy” Than Other Tweets

The controversy over whether President Trump’s Twitter account should be banned because some of his posts could be considered threats or bullying continues. In recent news, there was a renewed call to bar Trump from Twitter after Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, stated that recent inflammatory tweets from Mr. Trump should be considered “a declaration of war.” Recently, Twitter issued a statement from its policy team saying that it took a number of factors into account when dealing with violations of the company’s user agreement, including the “newsworthiness” of the tweet. Many users took issue with this policy because they feel it violates Twitter’s Terms of Service statement and implies that some users and their tweets, even those that may be considered bullying or threats, are protected because Twitter deems them “newsworthy.”