President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for coronavirus. He is widely reviled by roughly half the country on account of his often negligent and sometimes cruel policies on the pandemic, social justice, and immigration, among others. Some unknowable percentage of those people want him to die from the disease, and more than a handful of them have already explicitly said they hope the President dies from coronavirus on Twitter.
Twitter told Motherboard that users are not allowed to openly hope for Trump’s death on the platform and that tweets that do so “will have to be removed” and that they may have their accounts put into a “read-only” mode. Twitter referred to an “abusive behavior” rule that’s been on the books since April.’
In other words: You can’t tweet that you hope Trump dies of COVID.
tweets that wish or hope for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against *anyone* are not allowed and will need to be removed. this does not automatically mean suspension. https://t.co/lQ8wWGL2y0 https://t.co/P2vGfUeUQf
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) October 2, 2020
Specifically, Twitter tells the publication that it will suspend people who hope for Trump’s death, though it’s not clear how often Twitter will be able to do so.
