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Twitter locked Trump's account till he deleted post revealing journalist's email ID, cites privacy violation

The social media giant had a busy day scanning the Covid-hit president's posts this week as he kept on firing them frequently

Ever since he tested positive for Covid-19 last Friday, October 2, President Donald Trump has gone on a Twitter tirade. He has targeted almost everything and everybody in these posts and on one occasion, his action found itself at such odds with the medium that it locked the president’s account on grounds of violating its policy.

Twitter, which Trump uses frequently as his medium of communication, on Monday, October 5, locked his account after the former shared the email address of a New York Post columnist, who applauded him, in one of his posts. On Tuesday, October 6, Twitter told the New York Daily News that the president’s account was locked till the controversial post was removed. On another occasion later, Twitter also flagged a post made by Trump that claimed that the flu was more lethal than coronavirus — on grounds of misinformation.

Twitter doesn't allow users to share others' private information

As per Twitter’s privacy information policy, the users cannot share other people’s private information without obtaining their consent. “You may not publish or post other people's private information (such as home phone number and address) without their express authorization and permission. We also prohibit threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so,” the social media giant’s policy says. The White House did not immediately respond to a query over the same by the Daily News. Twitter deleted the particular post by Trump to write: “This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules.” The president was made to delete the post before Twitter unlocked his account. Even journalists who shared the tweet before it was deleted reported that they found their accounts locked until they deleted the shared post.

Journalists, who faced similar experience like Trump, slammed Twitter

Olivia Nuzzi, Washington correspondent of the New York Magazine, wrote in a tweet: “Unlocking my account meant agreeing to delete my tweet that contained the image of President Trump’s tweet. Why is @Twitter in the business of suppressing reporting on statements from the most powerful politician in the world?”

“Twitter’s position is that reporters sharing images of President Trump’s tweets that violate their rules is a violation of their rules itself. I think this is misguided, and the unintended effect is Twitter is protecting President Trump from himself by suppressing information.”

Ryan Mac of BuzzFeed News was the other journalist who also had a similar experience. He tweeted: “Twitter made me delete a tweet because it contained a screenshot of a now deleted tweet from Trump’s account that included an email address of a NYPost opinion writer (and violated twitter’s rules). So that’s how my night’s going.”

He then took a dig at the social media platform saying in another tweet: “Someone should tweet a screenshot of my now violative tweets to keep this block train going.”

Trump could tweet after the controversial tweet was removed. In the next visible tweet that Trump posted at 6.23 pm on Monday, he said: “Will be back on the Campaign Trail soon!!! The Fake News only shows the Fake Polls.”

The president made a dramatic return to the White House on Monday evening after spending three nights at the Walter Reed to receive treatment for coronavirus. Trump then also appeared to rewrite his original tweet that was deleted and this time he used the Post columnist’s Twitter handle. He posted: “You see it in enthusiasm for the President outside Walter Reed Hospital. You see it in Registrations, from Florida to Pennsylvania & West Virginia, where Republicans are outstripping Democrats by 2 to 1. If the President bounces back onto the campaign trail, he will be an....”

“....invincible hero, who not only survived every dirty trick the Democrats threw at him, but the Chinese virus as well. He will show America we no longer have to be afraid.” @MirandaDevine @NYPost Thank you Miranda. Was over until the Plague came in from China. Will win anyway!” Devine, an Australian journalist, has praised Trump earlier as well and faced a backlash in America’s media circles.

About its flagging the post in which Trump said flu is more lethal than Covid-19, Twitter hid the post behind a disclaimer but didn’t delete it saying: “Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.” It also added: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.” Facebook went to the extent of deleting the same post the president made on that platform and he hit out at them in another tweet, calling for the repealing of Section 230.