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posted by janrinok on Sunday January 07 2018, @11:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the It's-not-bannable-if-it's-the-president's-tweet dept.

Many Twitter users have reported threats of genocide and the use of weapons of mass destruction by one Twitterati in particular, but Twitter does not think these violate the terms of usage at Twitter. Tweet, at Mashable.

The President of the United States possibly made another threat of nuclear war on Twitter, but the company doesn't seem to think the post breaks any of its rules. Donald Trump boasted on Twitter about how his nuclear button was bigger than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's, and people are calling (again) for the president to be banned from the platform.

Folks on Twitter are asking the platform whether this violates its policy against violent threats. So far the response from Twitter has been in the form of an automated response in which Twitter says Trump's message represents "no violation of the Twitter Rules against abusive behavior."

Mashable checked, just in case:

Twitter confirmed to Mashable that "this Tweet did not violate our terms of service," referencing the Twitter Rules against violent threats and glorification of violence.

"You may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people," the rules state.

So it seems that if you are going to threaten serious "physical harm, death or disease" on Twitter, be sure to include everyone by using nukes, instead of just one individual or group.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday January 08 2018, @08:47PM (2 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday January 08 2018, @08:47PM (#619690) Journal

    It's partly the legacy of post-WWII education and priorities. We had invested so much time and energy in liberating and then rebuilding Europe that it dominated American perception of the Rest of the World. Japan was too far away to think about beyond superficial stereotypes like samurai and geishas. Thanks to the Cold War, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and all the rest were reduced to a simple struggle against global communism. Nobody had to think much about them or their perspectives.

    We don't live in that world anymore.

    Even so, when you have provided context on the Middle East by pointing out Turks are not Arabs, and the like, it's still news to most people in America (and, let's be honest, most Europeans, because despite what they'd have everyone else believe they are mostly quite parochial, too). A significant gap has opened between what the world actually is, and what matters in it, and what the average American believes it is, and what about it they believe matters.

    On a certain level, how much does it matter that we don't, as a people, understand North Korea or Kim Jong Un? What's to know? We're gonna wind up nuking the guy to kingdom come anyway, and calling it a day. But for those who are curious, for whatever reason, a few good places to start are these:

    1. Korea historically has been smacked around by its more powerful neighbors China and Japan. They escaped Chinese overlords only to be colonized by the Japanese. Then their country was divided by Russia and the United States. They've had to constantly fight to survive individually and as a people. They're tough, resilient people, because they've had to be. If Americans are familiar with Poland's history, sandwiched between the Russians and the Germans, then it's a bit of a window into Korea.

    2. Juche [wikipedia.org]. It roughly translates to "self-reliance," and it is central to North Korean political thought in the way that Manifest Destiny is fundamental to American political thought. Juche was formulated by Kim Il Sung, who was fighting Japanese colonization while in exile in Manchuria and Siberia. He founded North Korea, of course, and ruled it until his death. Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un are his son and grandson, respectively, and they have continued the policies of Juche. That's why it's so hard for China to control North Korea.

    3. Read Bruce Cumings's The Korean War: A History [amazon.com]. He leans left and that cast on his work is irritating, but it's a good place to start understanding modern Korean history for the North and the South.

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  • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 08 2018, @10:05PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 08 2018, @10:05PM (#619743)

    Korea historically has been smacked around by its more powerful neighbors China and Japan.

    This is wrong. China indeed had been the 800lb gorilla since the ancient time, and in the earlier days (the first millenium AC) Koreans went toe-to-toe with them, although eventually they became a satelite state in the sinosphere.

    Japan, on the other hand, was a non-factor, irrrelevant in the geopolitics of the region, until they finally managed to unify under a shogunate in the 17th century.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 08 2018, @10:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 08 2018, @10:13PM (#619746)

      China indeed had been the 800lb gorilla since the ancient time

      More specifically, China had been the 800lb gorilla in East Asia since the Han Dynasty. The dominant ethnic group in China is Han Chinese, and the name "Han" derives from the Han Dynasty, the first Chinese imperial dynasty that expended the Chinese territory somewhat similar to today and established Chinese part of the ancient Silk Road trading route.