This group wants Trump to stay on Twitter: His detractors
SAN FRANCISCO — Nary a day goes by that someone doesn't beg Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to dump President Trump from the platform.
It's not likely. And even while his supporters may wish for something less extreme, say locking his phone up at night, any push to keep POTUS off Twitter would run into a surprising roadblock: His detractors.
"If we stop him from tweeting, we’ll be left in the dark," says Reza Kazemipour, an Iranian-American and U.S. military veteran who is CEO of Neroo Labs, a data-centric concierge for health and wellness. "How would we know what he’s thinking?"
Thus is Twitter's conundrum with its most famous politician. Trump Twitter is the biggest show on earth. Analysts speculate the social media company, which struggles to keep up with rivals Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, may be getting a bump from all the agitating the president does from his @realDonaldTrump account, which started in March 2009 and now has 24.2 million followers. The @POTUS account, with 15.1 million followers, often retweets Trump's personal account.
His detractors allege that Twitter, which already has a serious problem with abuse and harassment on the platform, has elected its abuser-in-chief. Web sites and online petitions that want Trump booted from Twitter are worried about the impact of his tweets on markets, international relations and individuals, as well slurs against some religions and ethnicities.
In December, an Indianapolis union leader who criticized Trump's Carrier deal said he received physical threats after Trump tweeted the steelworker was doing a "terrible job." During the campaign, Trump called Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D.-Mass, a "Pocahontas", an apparent reference to her claims to Native American heritage. In the aftermath of a presidential debate in which Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton brought up former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, Trump tweeted she was a 'con', 'disgusting' and had filmed in a sex tape. Machado said she received a slew of Twitter abuse as a result.
Let Trump tweet
Business author Josh Bernoff, 58, disagrees strongly with the idea Twitter should just turn off the Trump spigot. He calls Trump a "disaster," but considers it essential the American public hear from him via Twitter to glean insight. "It is preferable to a President Nixon-type, who hid in secrecy," he says. "Trump is communicating directly to the public and does so effectively, even if I disagree with him."
Bernoff is part of a camp convinced Twitter is doing the American public a service by letting Trump air his views, which mobilizes opposition and offers a window into his thinking. His personal account offers important insight into his psyche, especially if they negatively affect his ability to implement his agenda.
The ACLU has repeatedly defended the right for anyone to express their opinions on social media, including Trump on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Trump's fervent supporters — though thrilled with his bare-knuckled, unfiltered public comments — cringe at his name-calling Twitter feed, which has become for social media what Don Rickles was to stand-up comedy. "Shut up, already" is the sentiment, according to a new USA TODAY Network panel of 25 Trump voters from 19 states.
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"I wish he would get off Twitter," Cheyne Henry, 31, a business manager from Red Lion, Pa., told USA TODAY about the president's provocative 140-character bursts on Twitter. "He doesn't have a filter. I think people would look at him better if he would stop talking so much."
"I'm not overly fond of it," says Will Gardenswartz, 53, a digital-marketing consultant in Sun Valley, Idaho. "It's hard to convey substance in 140 characters, and it is easy to be mean. Can you imagine FDR having a fireside tweet?"
Nonetheless, Gardenswartz, a conservative, sees the value in Trump using Twitter to bypass the press and reach his audience directly.
The Trump-on-Twitter conundrum hangs over the micro-blogging service as it readies its quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday. The president is as central to Twitter's identity these days as Dorsey and, according to one analyst, it is benefiting from that connection.
"It is undeniable that Twitter has been thrust into the global zeitgeist following the US Presidential Election in November 2016," Richard Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG, wrote in a report Wednesday that upgraded Twitter stock to "buy." He noted evidence of "growing user engagement" and a "meaningful uptick" in downloads of the Twitter application on iOS devices domestically, as well as a CivicScience survey showing an increase in daily usage.
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Not a free-speech issue
The micro-blogging service has billed itself "the free speech wing of the free speech party," but for years its hands-off approach gave rise to hate mongering and harassment. With the election of Trump, his bashers claim, personal attacks and threats via tweets have escalated.
So, why not suspend Trump? After all, it's Twitter's right as a private property to see fit what appears on its service.
"Twitter is well within its rights to suspend Trump," says Marc Randazza, a free-speech lawyer in Las Vegas. "It is a private place, not a public forum such as a plaza in front of a government building, where public speech in permitted."
Twitter has handled the Trump situation judiciously, saying simply that, "The Twitter Rules apply to all accounts." In other words, you are allowed to tweet anything until you break the rules such as violent threats, targeted harassment, hateful conduct and multiple account abuse.
After 34,500 tweets, Twitter has not deemed it necessary to suspend Trump for violating its rules.
"He’s smart, staying within confines of Twitter policy. And his comments make for great Saturday Night Live material," Kazemipour says.
Follow USA TODAY San Francisco Bureau Chief Jon Swartz @jswartz on Twitter. Contributing: Joshua Hafner and Susan Page.