Twitter has indicated that it will not respond to an online petition to ban President Donald Trump from the social media website.
“We do not comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons,” Twitter spokesman Nu Wexler told The Daily Caller on Tuesday.
The petition at Care2 Petitions has now generated more than 56,000 signatures since its inception some six months ago.
Shirley Burns, the author of the Care2 petition to rid Twitter of Trump, says that Trump “has crossed a line by attacking people on Twitter based on their race, religion, gender and more.”
Burns cites Twitter’s rules. “You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease,” a clause concerning “hateful conduct” in the Twitter rulebook explains.
“We call on Twitter to investigate @realDonaldTrump and temporarily suspend his account until, to use Trump’s own words, they can ‘figure out what is going on,’” the petition states.
A trio of updates to the petition suggest that “Twitter said it would ban Trump if he violates its policies on hate speech,” that Trump uses Twitter “to spread false information and propose monstrous ideas” and that Trump “has insulted 258 people, places and things on Twitter.”
Accounts “engaging in the activities specified below may be temporarily locked and/or subject to permanent suspension,” Twitter’s rules state, according to the petition.
“By locking or suspending Donald Trump’s account, Twitter can send a powerful message that hate is not accepted or condoned on their platform,” the petition urges.
In the past, Trump has tweeted rants which Burns and, presumably, the many thousands of signatories of the Care2 petition consider sufficiently hateful.
In 2015, for example, Trump tweeted: “Druggies, drug dealers, rapists and killers are coming across the southern border. When will the U.S. get smart and stop this travesty?”
In late November, as president-elect, Trump proposed taking citizenship away from anyone who burns the U.S. flag — either that, or maybe slapping them with just a one-year prison term.
Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016
“President-elect Trump is using Twitter to spread false information and propose monstrous ideas,” the petition says. “If Twitter doesn’t suspend his account, Trump will continue to use it as a state propaganda machine.”
Here are a couple comments from recent signatories who have endorsed the petition:
“Trump is undermining our national interests with his impulsive, immature, and poorly considered tweets,” says a recent signatory from Massachusetts.
“I hate seeing hatred and bigotry spread throughout the electronic world,” writes a signee from Washington.