Donald Trump is no stranger to controversial statements and conflict on social media. Recently, the former President of the United States was involved in a heated exchange with Chrissy Teigen, after she called him a “pussy ass bitch” in response to a tweet from him. Trump responded by tweeting out a request to Twitter to delete the tweet, which they refused to do.
It all started when Trump tweeted out an attack on Joe Scarborough, a former Republican Congressman who is now a popular morning host on MSNBC. Teigen responded to the tweet by writing, “no. no one should be canceled,” which appeared to refer to recent calls to cancel Trump over some of his controversial statements. She then went on to call Trump a “pussy ass bitch.”
Trump responded to Teigen’s tweet by requesting that Twitter delete it, saying “Please delete this tweet.” However, that is not how Twitter works, and the tweet stayed up, much to the annoyance of Trump.
Twitter generally does not delete content from its platform, except in cases of blatant incitement to violence and other grossly offensive content. In this case, it deemed Teigen’s tweet to be within its guidelines for permissible speech. The company’s policy is intended to create a free exchange of ideas and expression, and it is not willing to censor content that it judges to be within those guidelines.
This is yet another example of Trump’s growing discomfort with criticism, as expressed through his use of social media. He appears to want a form of suppression that does not exist on Twitter, and it is clear that he expects certain deference from tech companies like Twitter and Facebook.
Even after he left the White House, Trump has continued to find that his fiery exchanges with celebrities and his call for censorship of dissenting speech lead to only frustration. Twitter seems to be more than happy to ask the former President to play within their own rules, and so far he has failed to do so.
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