Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Tuesday calling on the social-media company to suspend President Trump’s account for tweeting “blatant threats.”
The California senator claimed that Trump’s tweets about Ukraine and House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff violate Twitter’s policy that tweets “may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people.”
The president suggested in a tweet that Schiff lied about Trump’s controversial call with the Ukrainian president and that the Democratic congressman should be arrested for “treason.”
Other Twitter users “have had their accounts suspended for less offensive behavior,” Harris wrote.
Twitter announced in June that it will place content from political figures that violates the company’s policies behind a “screen you have to click or tap through before you see the Tweet” in order to warn users about the violation before they view the content. The reach of such content will also be limited.
Hawaii representative Tulsi Gabbard, another 2020 Democratic presidential contender, said she disagreed with Harris’s position.
“No,” Gabbard responded when asked if she agreed that Trump’s account should be suspended. “I think freedom of speech is something that is an important foundational right in our democracy.”
“We can’t just cancel or shut down or silence those who we disagree with or who hold different views or who say things even that we strongly disagree with or abhor,” Gabbard went on. “These freedoms and principles enshrined in our Constitution are things that we have to take very seriously. I and so many others who wear the uniform of this country are willing to give our lives to protect and defend this freedom of speech even for those who are saying things that we disagree with.”
Gabbard added, however, that Trump’s language is “inciting a lot of divisiveness” and said voters must vote to defeat him.