Twitter for the Greater Political Good?
You know how teenagers get embarrassed when they find out their Mom posted a “selfie” on Facebook? Yeah, well, that’s how many citizens of the United States often feel reading the current President’s tweets. With a growing forty seven million followers, @realDonaldTrump on Twitter, the President has the power to risk our safety at his fingertips using social media. These two hundred and eighty character statements have not only led to sparking debate between the two parties, but have even had influence with foreign governments. The controversy over Trump’s personal account make many ask, should world leaders be able to use Twitter? As a country whose slogan is Freedom of Speech, does the First Amendment apply to the President?
In a world where reports on fake news is the real news, officials should have a way to contact the people without a third party involved. Technology is advancing by the minute. Within today’s society, it has become a passage of right for young people to open up their first account and start sharing their life with the world. Despite social media being mostly associated with the younger generation, everybody is slowly becoming more and more involved. Even my 73 year old Grandma is an active instagramer. It is necessary that people in power modernize the method of communicating with millennials and the clear way to get the attention of adolescents is by using social media. Unfortunately, the comments being sent out by Trump have made most question this logic.
President Trump is able to write whatever is on his mind, at any second, and is able to publish it with little to no filter. He goes as far as saying he wouldn’t have won his presidency without Twitter. Trump crudely attacks anyone who openly protests what he believes in, or whoever he deems to be unworthy, and he also makes all private matters public. Many view what he has tweeted to be immature, problematic, and overall, reckless. His Twitter is equivalent to the burn book in Mean Girls. Both, entries by Regina George and tweets by Donald Trump, are just used to bash on individuals who intimate them. After a series of tweets taunting Kin Jong-Un on nuclear warfare, he seemed to have finally crossed the line Americans had drawn. More people than usual began to flood the company of Twitter with messages begging them to ban Donald Trump and delete his account immediately.
On January 5th, Twitter came out with a blogpost clearly stating, without naming names, they would not be banning or deleting any tweet made by Donald Trump. Twitter claims their purpose as a platform is to start discussions. If they were to hide information from the people, who have a right to know, they wouldn’t be doing their duty. “It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.” What needs to happen is Donald Trump must end his reign as dictator on Twitter and start using it to spread good.
Delaney is a senior at PMHS and it is her third year on The Red and Black. She is the Editor in Chief and in the past has held the title of Photo Editor....
Robert Ridings • Mar 9, 2018 at 7:52 am
Very well written article, highlighting how our democracy and the first amendment rights of Americans needs to be preserved even as the person serving as our country’s leader uses the twitter platform for propaganda that fuels the divide in our country. It is refreshing to read an article that sees the immaturity and irresponsible use / abuse of the twitter platform by our president while recognizing that we cannot filter him as that will further decay our democracy. Our country will survive this disaster of a president and bad role model for our children. Something to think about, could Trump actually be helping young people by showing them how abusing the system and bullying people is bad and that we all have to do our part to ensure we communicate and act with responsible communications and actions or we become Trump. Something to ponder