Kamala Harris Wants Twitter To Kick President Off Service, Says Trump Tweets Violate Harassment Prohibition

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is asking Twitter Inc TWTR to shut down President Donald Trump’s account, saying he has routinely violated Twitter’s user terms.

What Happened

In a letter sent Tuesday to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the California senator cited specific recent tweets by Trump and said they amounted to harassment and intimidation of the whistleblower in the Ukraine phone case, and another Democratic member of Congress, Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Harris pointed to several tweets from late September, some of which suggested the whistleblower and others who provided information on Trump’s call with the president of Ukraine may be spies, and warning of “Big Consequences,” for them.

She also pointed to Sept. 29 and 30 tweets in which Trump said he wants Schiff “questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason,” and questioned whether Schiff should be arrested.

'Blatant Threats'

“These are blatant threats,” Harris said in the letter to Dorsey. “We need a civil society, not a civil war. These tweets represent a clear intent to baselessly discredit the whistleblower and officials in our government who are following the proper channels to report allegations of presidential impropriety, all while making blatant threats that put people at risk and our democracy in danger.”

Harris also said Twitter has suspended other users, including actor James Woods, hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli and InfoWars host Alex Jones for using the platform “to spread hateful messages.”

“I believe the President’s recent tweets rise to the level that Twitter should consider suspending his account,” Harris wrote. “Others have had their accounts suspended for less offensive behavior. And when this kind of abuse is being spewed from the most powerful office in the United States, the stakes are too high to do nothing.”

Harris also tweeted the request directly to Dorsey, cting a Trump tweet in which the president said Democrats were engaging in a coup by pursuing an impeachment inquiry in the Ukraine matter.

What's Next

Dorsey hasn’t publicly responded.

Twitter has said in the past, however, that it may allow some tweets that violate its rules to “remain on our service because we believe there is a legitimate public interest in its availability.” In those cases, Twitter usually allows the tweet to exist, but hides it from users’ feeds and notifies users of its existence, allowing the user to choose whether to view it.

Twitter's stock traded lower by 1.4% to $39.68 at time of publication.

Related Links:

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Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia