If you owned Twitter, would you ban Donald J Trump?

[kentuck]

Or just suspend him for a week or a month?

The suspension would probably hurt him more than an outright ban. It would take away the "black or white" that he prefers in an argument.

I think he should be suspended, at a minimum. Of course, he would only steal someone else's twitter account and then lie about it. That's the way he rolls.

A ban would be a fatal blow against him. He is hooked on Tweeter.

[Faux pas]

1. For effing sure!!!!!!

[TheBlackAdder]

20. Yep, just like every other asshole who abuses the TOS! Trump & celebs seem to get a pass though.

[empedocles]

2. Fact check and respond him to hell

[qazplm135]

3. I'd ban his personal account

at the very least force him to tweet from the WH account.

I think the tweets are helping to do him in. I'm not sure I want to stop that til he's finished.

[Jamastiene]

15. Doesn't Twitter have a thing in their policy about having two accounts or posting on two accounts?

They could ban his personal account like you said that way. That way, his nasty, vile, racist, violent tweets would go on America's permanent record.

As it stands now, they, meaning Trump and his cronies, could very easily hide the types of things he has said in the future.

Right now, that doesn't seem possible to most people, because people keep saying the internet is forever, but that is not necessarily so.

It could very well happen and much easier than people think. It is better to know it can happen and prepare for it than to think it cannot happen and be without a record of what was said and have that lost forever. I don't want any of his hateful stuff lost, because I want it on America's permanent record, in the archives, to remind people why America is how it is and how bad it has been under him.

As we end up with more and more extreme Republican presidents, outright fascism and authoritarianism will get worse and worse. It's already happening to a degree, but I can almost guarantee it is going to get worse. They keep running more and more extreme Republicans and it keeps going back and forth between the parties for president.

People always tell me I am wrong, but it always works out the way I saw it coming, just like I saw Trump coming. I knew he'd get it. Unfortunately, I was right. How I knew? I am surrounded by a bunch of Trump supporters where I live. However they are leaning, that's how it goes. They always get what they want. Right now, they are more extreme than they have ever been. The fascist and extremist rightward bigoted mentality of the Republican Party is only going to get worse, not better. I wish people would listen. I want so bad to say, "It's the bigotry, stupid." but I am afraid newer people might not get the reference from almost 30 years ago and think that means an insult to them. But, it is. It is the bigotry. That is the pulse on how bad things are going to get. It is WAY worse than people really think.

[LuvNewcastle]

27. We have a conflict between two different versions

of reality. There's really no room for both. Either you want the country to build and progress together or you want the country to divide into factions that are always bickering and getting nothing accomplished. Some people, believe it or not, enjoy all of the rancor and they profit from it, which is why they continually stoke the fires of hate and distrust. I surely hope we can put our problems aside and stand up against the destroyers among us, but the outcome is by no means certain. Even if we win this election, we'll still have a long way to go.

[PCIntern]

4. Before or after I piss on his shoes?

Really...? That’s a question?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I'd suspend him, then let him up, then suspend him some more.

It would drive him nuts (although for him, crazy really isn't a drive but just a short putt).

[TheBlackAdder]

22. That's even better. Give, take, give back, take again. It will drive him nuts to filter his posts.

.

Like a crack addict, a 2-day suspension would force him into uncontrollable DTs.

It's one thing if he decides to cool it for a day or two and quite another of someone else forces him.

He'd lose his 💩

.

[gulliver]

28. This

[Best_man23]

6. Not until he's out of office

At 12:01 January 20, 2021, Twitter needs to permanently lock all his accounts, and ban him from the platform, for life.

[demmiblue]

7. I would suspend him until he deleted the tweets that violated the ToS, like any other user.

He would never delete a tweet, so he would be suspended into perpetuity.

[Budi]

8. Certainly. His fake message-bots can go find another home

Zuckerburg's always open for business.

[lagomorph777]

11. Falsebook and Twit are both obeying Putin's orders.

Both are filthy and evil. I would never touch them.

[KewlKat]

9. I'd like to see ALL ELECTED officials banned from twitter. They just can't help themselves.

The "White House" doesn't need an account either. Has twitter tagged that nasty tweet from this morning? the looting and shooting one?

[lagomorph777]

12. They tagged it but should have bagged it.

[Caliman73]

10. I would have banned him since 2011 when he started the birtherism shit.

That is when he should have been banned. No Twitter account in 2016, likely no Trump.

[rickford66]

13. Yup

[Alex4Martinez]

14. Yes, and I'd make retirement a condition of restoration of his account.

Twitter can do whatever Twitter wants, they reserve the right to refuse service, there is neither an expressed nor an implied right to Tweet.

Fuck him.

[Cirque du So-What]

16. Nope

I sold my soul for profit, so I won't turn my back on a cash cow like that. Wouldn't be capitalistic to mess with that business model.

[coti]

17. Does the pope shit on a red-headed stepchild in the woods? nt

[Jamastiene]

18. Ban his personal account and FORCE him to put it ALL on the White House Twitter page.

That way it all gets archived. As it stands now, there is a possibility what he says on his personal account will disappear into the dustbin of history and not get archived and put on record. I know people think I am crazy and flat out wrong for saying that, but it could happen and very well might. I just want it all archived and put on record, for SURE.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

32. Maybe secretly

Mirror his account somewhere?

[onecaliberal]

19. His personal account should be banned like mine would have been had I tweeted half the crap he tweet

Fact check everything on the potus account. Call out his lies and stupidity.

[roamer65]

21. In a NY minute.

[Laelth]

23. No. No way. None of the above.

We're talking about the President of the United States, for better or for worse. If I own Twitter, I am thrilled that he is using my platform. I am not going to censor political speech. I could, mind you. Twitter isn't the government, and the 1st Amendment only forbids the government from restricting free speech, but I wouldn't censor or restrict Trump at all. Whatever the President says is relevant--especially if it's political. I would not ban him, censor him, or even suspend him.

That said, I would fact check him. I would correct the lies he spews with appended links to information that contradicts his apparently-untruthful statements. I would, as Twitter now does, announce when his tweets violate the platform's terms of service.

But I would not censor him in any way. Whether we like it or not, he is the President of the most powerful nation on Earth. What he thinks and what he says matters to most of humanity.

-Laelth

[LuvNewcastle]

29. I agree.

And if he wanted to bitch about fact-checking his posts, I'd just tell him you're lucky I let you post here at all after all of the terrible shit you say. But it's not a good idea to outright ban or censor a POTUS. It just raises the level of hate another octave. Correct, but don't deny service.

[grumpyduck]

24. That's a tough question to answer

because Twitter is a corporation, not a privately-owned business and therefore a lot of people have a say in what it does or doesn't do. If I had been CEO of the company back around '15-16, I would have insisted that the TOS apply to everybody, including politicians. But the board might very well have refused if they thought it would affect profits. They might have even pushed me out like so many other founders have been.

[kurtcagle]

25. No

I think Dorsey did precisely the right thing.

Banning would have been censorship, and as a journalist, a member of the ACLU, and someone who's been writing about social media for a looking time, it would only serve to legitimize Trump's arguments.

What Twitter is doing now is 1) disclaiming that they endorse Trump in anything that he says, meaning that he can't steal the mantle of Twitter's legitimacy for his own rants, 2) indicating that there are dangerous falsehoods being promoted by Trump, 3) indicating that the rants have been deemed as promoting and advocating for violence, which is against the law in many jurisdictions.

Trump is attempting to bully the social media platforms into not criticizing him. Zuckerberg is terrified that hundreds of millions of dollars in ad revenue from various right wing sources will dry up if he doesn't toe the line, and so caved quickly, which I think will only serve to accelerate the migration from Facebook right now of anyone other than the far right. Dorsey's not as concerned, because Twitter has a much broader reach as a journalistic platform than Facebook ever did.

Dorsey also knows that Trump's threat rings hollow: The EO as written is unenforceable, and the only way that it could be enforced would be to get it through the House, which isn't going to happen.

[marlakay]

26. Suspend him until after the election

Then let him whine after with no one listening....

[UpInArms]

30. I would have locked his personal account

On January 20, 2017 ...

And allowed him to use one from the White House...

And then I would have posted lie warnings ..

And after 3 of those, I would have locked and banned.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

31. Yes I would ban him, forever.

I'd also ban blatant propaganda channels and hate radio.