As reaction to President Trump’s positive coronavirus test floods social media, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok have a message to users: Wishing for the president to die is not allowed.
All three tech companies confirmed that such posts will be removed for violating each platform’s content policies.
As moderators scramble to pull down posts that express hope that Trump succumbs to the virus, wild speculation, conspiracy theories and other falsehoods about the president and first lady’s positive COVID-19 tests have been surging on the platforms, with each of them making dicey calls about what is permissible and what crosses a line.
A Facebook spokesperson said posts wishing Trump’s death — including comments on the president’s pages, and posts that tag him — will be taken down from the social network.
Twitter said tweets that “wish or hope for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease” against anyone, including the president, will be pulled off the platform. Twitter says such “abusive” behavior can lead to an account being suspended.
spokesperson for TikTok told NPR that cheering on Trump’s death would be in violation of the short-form video app’s community guidelines, saying content longing for Trump’s demise “would be a violation of our community guidelines and removed if we find that.”
