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Tuesday 7 November 2017 TECHNOLOGY
A24

Trump-free Twitter: Outage highlights service's importance

By MATT O'BRIEN Facebook and Google,
AP Technology Writer faced grilling from Con-
President Donald Trump's gress this week over politi-
Twitter account disap- cal abuse of their services,
peared for just 11 minutes including Russian efforts to
this week, far shorter than interfere in last year's presi-
past outages that have af- dential elections. Twitter
fected users of the social also faced outcry when it
media service. temporarily suspended ac-
But as Trump's critics tress Rose McGowan's ac-
cheered his brief moment count while she was speak-
of forced silence and Twit- ing out against Harvey
ter struggled to explain Weinstein.
who was responsible for That's why when Trump's
deactivating his account, account went dark Thurs-
the outage underscored day, some observers as-
how important Twitter has sumed it was a formal re-
been to his presidency — buke. His critics celebrated.
and how easy it is to pull Some suggested the lull
the plug. was too brief.
"My Twitter account was "Dear Twitter employee
taken down for 11 minutes who shut down Trump's
by a rogue employee," Twitter: You made America
Trump wrote from his re- feel better for 11 minutes,"
stored account early Fri- President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing the White House for a trip to wrote U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, a
day, making light of the Asia, Friday, Nov. 3, 2017, in Washington. California Democrat who
brief Thursday evening dis- Associated Press offered to buy the uniden-
ruption that vexed many dark. primary means of com- Jaffer said that "love it or tified worker a Pizza Hut
of his 41 million followers. "I Twitter wouldn't say if it was municating with the mass- hate it, the account has pizza.
guess the word must finally a contractor and declined es since even before he become an important Trump supporters warned
be getting out-and having further explanation, raising launched his presidential source of news and infor- of censorship.
an impact." questions not only about campaign. mation about the govern- Just days earlier, the com-
Twitter blamed a customer its own security measures He has resisted pleas from ment" and Trump's tweets pany had shut down the
support worker on his or her but on Trump's heavy reli- family and friends to set "often shed light on official personal account of a close
last day on the job for de- ance on a single platform aside his mobile device decisions and policies — Trump ally, Roger Stone, af-
activating Trump's account to broadcast his views. and to act more presiden- and even when they don't, ter a profanity-laced tirade
on the way out. "It's not surprising that even tial. Trump says the service they shed light on the tem- insulting journalists.
The San Francisco-based the brief shutdown of the allows him to get his mes- perament, character, and Stone responded by calling
company added Friday president's Twitter ac- sage out to supporters with- motives of the person most the company the "totalitar-
that it is still investigating count has provoked de- out the filter of the media, responsible for them." ian corporate thought po-
and has "implemented bate," said Jameel Jaffer, but it's also allowed him to Trump uses Instagram and lice."
safeguards to prevent this executive director of Co- circumvent his own staff. Facebook sparingly, usually Twitter has said it won't ban
from happening again." lumbia University's Knight Twitter enables Trump to to amplify items he has al- Trump, even though his crit-
The New York Times re- First Amendment Institute, unveil himself, constantly, ready tweeted. ics say he has violated its
ported Friday, citing two which has filed a federal to the American people. He controls the @realdon- rules against harassment
unnamed sources, that it lawsuit challenging Trump's "It provides agenda con- aldtrump account on Twit- and intimidation.
was an outside contractor, practice of blocking Twitter trol," said Kathleen Hall Ja- ter, while aides control the Just an hour after musing
not a Twitter staff member, users who criticize him. mieson, a communication other accounts. about his temporary Twitter
who made the account go Twitter has been Trump's professor at the University Twitter has struggled in re- deactivation, Trump was
of Pennsylvania. cent months in how it en- again disparaging Demo-
"Every reporter scrutinizes it. forces, and explains, its cratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth
The framing capacity is ex- procedures for managing Warren as "Pocahontas"
traordinarily high. accounts that violate its because she has men-
He can switch the news code of conduct. tioned having American
agenda by tweeting some- While Twitter's customer Indian heritage.
thing controversial." service workers cannot Free speech advocates
Trump's Twitter missives fre- post on someone else's ac- have said that it's better
quently catch even senior count, they have the ability to keep Trump on the plat-
aides off guard, such as to suspend or remove ac- form , and it should not be
when he ratcheted up the counts, or delete individual up to private companies to
rhetoric on North Korea this tweets, over violations. decide whether the presi-
summer. The company, along with dent has a voice there.q