Taking US President Donald Trump's side once again, Twitter has refused to remove Trump's tweets that included graphic anti-Muslim videos. In a blow to Twitter’s credibility, the company retracted its previous explanation for why it did not remove tweets.
Trump had retweeted videos by far-right British politician Jayda Fraser that purported to show Muslims performing violent acts. The tweet led to ‘war of words’ between President Trump and British Prime Minister Reacting to this. British PM Theresa May called Trump "wrong" for promoting such "hateful narratives".
Trump replied back, telling May that she should instead turn her attention to terrorism and that "we are doing just fine".
Later, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted: "We mistakenly pointed to the wrong reason (why) we didn't take action on the videos from earlier this week. We're still looking critically at all of our current policies, and appreciate all the feedback.” Dorsey has also defended Trump's tweets.
Now, a two-part tweet from the trust and safety team at the micro-blogging platform has said that the videos "are permitted on Twitter based on our current media policy".
"Earlier this week Tweets were sent that contained graphic and violent videos. We pointed people to our Help Centre to explain why they remained up, and this caused some confusion," @TwitterSafety tweeted late on Friday.
"To clarify: these videos are not being kept up because they are newsworthy or for public interest. Rather, these videos are permitted on Twitter based on our current media policy," it added.
According to reports , Twitter’s regular missteps, half-steps, and apologies around its policies have become a running joke this year.
Earlier also Twitter had come under scanner for not removing tweets by Trump, which critics argue ‘are hateful and promote violence’. Twitter’s guidelines clearly mention that it does not allow accounts that are engaged in “promoting violence against or directly attack or threaten other people”.
Trump in a twitter statement had said: "Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at UN. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer!"
Earlier this month, a Twitter employee brought down Trump's Twitter account for 11 minutes on his last day in office.
Twitterati praised the Twitter employee who deactivated Trump's account.
There have been ongoing calls for Twitter to ban Trump over his tweets.
