Why Twitter didn't ban Donald Trump for threatening tweet

Twitter has explained its reasoning for not suspended the account of Donald Trump after the US president sent a threatening tweet about North Korea.

President Donald Trump threatened North Korea via Twitter. Picture: AP Photo/Evan Vucci

On Sunday, Trump tweeted to his 39.3 million followers: “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!”

The social media site has a prohibition on threats of violence, with North Korea calling Trump’s comment a “clear declaration of war”.

The company’s public terms of service state: “You may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism.”

Yet, after complaints and queries from the public, the tweet remains.

Twitter takes into account both the ’newsworthiness’ of a tweet and whether it “is of public interest”, before opting to remove it.

To make their standing clearer Twitter will soon update their “public-facing rules to reflect it”.