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Twitter will remove tweets wishing death upon anyone

Twitter will remove tweets wishing death upon anyone
Posted at 1:58 PM, Oct 05, 2020
and last updated 2020-10-05 14:58:12-04

If you want to tweet about hoping someone dies, Twitter said it could remove it.

On Friday, Vice reported that Twitter would ban users who wished death upon President Donald Trump after it was reported that he and First Lady Melania had tested positive for COVID-19.

In response, Twitter issued a statement from its Twitter Communications account.

"Tweets that wish or hope for death, serious bodily harm, or fatal disease against *anyone* are not allowed and will need to be removed," said Twitter.

Twitter added that they wouldn't automatically suspend accounts.

But some are saying Twitter is holding a double-standard.

Four congresswomen say they receive tweets that threaten them and call for their deaths, CNN reported.

"Seriously, though, this is messed up. The death threats towards us should have been taking more seriously by [Twitter]," Rep. Rashida Tlaib tweeted in response.

In a series of tweets from Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley suggested that Twitter did not take the threats made against them seriously and wanted them to be aware of it.

After a backlash from users, Twitter issued a follow-up statement saying they would do better regarding its abuse policies.

"We hear the voices who feel that we're enforcing some policies inconsistently," Twitter said. "We agree we must do better, and we are working together inside to do so."

Facebook spokeswoman Liz Bourgeois tweeted about Facebook's policy when it comes to wishing the president to die.

"Facebook is removing death threats or content targeted directly at the president that wishes him death, including comments on his posts or his page in addition to content tagging him," Bourgeois tweeted.