The four progressive Democratic congresswomen known as “The Squad” have called Twitter out over its hypocrisy after the social media platform posted about its policy against wishing harm or death following President Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis.
After hearing that Trump, who has continued to downplay the pandemic, some Twitter users willed that he succumbs to the virus.
“Tweets that wish or hope for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against anyone are not allowed and will need to be removed,” Twitter posted.
Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts took to Twitter to question why the policy was not implemented when they were bombarded with death threats after being targeted by Trump.
“Seriously though, this is messed up. The death threats towards us should have been taking more seriously by [Twitter],” Tlaib tweeted in response.
Ocasio-Cortez retweeted the post, “So… you mean to tell us you could’ve done this the whole time?” she wrote.
CNN reached out to the platform, which gave the following response:
“At Twitter, it is our top priority to improve the health of the public conversation, and that includes ensuring the safety of people who use our service. Abuse and harassment have no place on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesperson told CNN.
“Our policies — which apply to everyone, everywhere — are clear: We do not tolerate content that wishes, hopes or expresses a desire for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against an individual or group of people. If we identify accounts that violate these rules, we will take enforcement action.”
