Some thoughts on Twitter's ban of Donald Trump:
1) We should concern ourselves about the precedent this sets for other users, especially depending on the platform's explanation.
2) But I think there are approaches that would avoid slippery slopes. I offered one in 2018 (1/x)
1) We should concern ourselves about the precedent this sets for other users, especially depending on the platform's explanation.
2) But I think there are approaches that would avoid slippery slopes. I offered one in 2018 (1/x)
3) World leaders, regardless of ideology, are unlike all other users. They combine maximum institutional power and reach. & the consequences if they are impulsively reckless have unique potential to do damage.
4) Twitter's architecture and culture reward impulsive hostility, including on the highest stakes issues. Easily the best example is the Donald Trump Tweet that prompted my 2018 article. Let's revisit it.
Trump decided it was a good idea to indulge and escalate a pissing contest with the most hostile nuclear power in the world *on Twitter* 
As I argued in the piece:
I hope you'll read the piece, note that Donald Trump is not the last world leader who its analysis will apply to, and consider that a blanket ban would sidestep many tough ideological bias questions in future cases theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
And banning world leaders from Twitter would not, in my view, chill constructive discourse nearly as much as a series of Twitter statements that try to fit general rules to this very extreme case, often in ways that seem backward-engineered when you read them
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
