TW: This article discusses violence, racism, transphobia and misogyny.
Trump’s Twitter career came to an undignified end on Friday 8th January, two days after violent insurrectionists stormed the Capitol and less than two weeks before the termination of his Presidency. The incitement to violence that led to widespread property damage and the deaths of five people may have been the final straw, but it was not an isolated incident.
“Given a social media platform, Trump was able to pedal his bigoted views with far greater ease and consistency.”
Encouraging violence has been a consistent feature of Trump’s life since long before he made it into office. Back in 1989, well before the advent of Twitter, Trump spent $85,000 on a newspaper advert, calling for the deaths of the ‘exonerated five’ – five innocent black boys falsely convicted of murder. Given a social media platform, Trump was able to peddle his bigoted views with far greater ease and consistency.
Tweeting hate
More recently, Trump’s racism has included disparaging tweets that called Rep. Maxine Waters “an extraordinarily low IQ person” and Dom Lemon “the dumbest man on television”. He also called for those NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to be “suspended without pay”. Moreover, his disregard for black lives was reinforced by his callously threatening response to peaceful BLM protesters; “when the looting starts the shooting starts.”
Trump has also used his Twitter platform to target immigrants. Four congresswomen of colour, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, were told to “go home”, even though all four women are American citizens and only Omar was born outside of the US. The same instruction was also levied against Mexicans, who Trump has repeatedly referred to as an “invasion.”
Additionally, the homophobia and transphobia that plagued Trump’s presidency were demonstrated by the infamous Twitter announcement that transgender people “burdened” the US Military and so were banned from serving.
Finally, Trump’s disdain for women has long been made clear online. In May 2013, he made the alarming suggestion that sexual assault within the military was inevitable, commenting: “what did these geniuses expect when they put men and women together?” This was not the first time that he had made invasive comments about women. Several months prior, talking about Kate Middleton, he asked: “who wouldn’t take [her] picture and make lots of money.” That Trump could use Twitter to openly promote the idea that women’s bodies are public property with impunity is wholly disturbing.
The consequences for minorities
The violence that has stemmed from Trump’s openly bigoted online presence is even more unsettling. The consequence of his racist language was perhaps felt most strongly on 3rd August 2019, when a terrorist parroting Trump’s anti-Mexican views killed 22 people in El Paso. This incident was not an anomaly, though; in 2018, the FBI reported 485 anti-Latino hate crimes, as well as 168 committed against transgender people. Of those, transgender women of colour have always been particularly vulnerable.
Additionally, in 2019, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 2,107 antisemitic attacks in the US. Among the white supremacists who waved Confederate flags throughout the Capitol, rioters could be seen wearing antisemitic slogans including ‘Camp Auschwitz’ on their t-shirts – another direct link between Trump’s rhetoric and the increasing persecution of minorities.
So why wasn’t Trump’s love affair with social media shut down sooner?
“For vulnerable minorities, this has manifested into rising levels of discrimination and hate crime against them, legitimised by the former President’s language.”
Although Twitter has finally drawn the line at inciting terrorism, Trump has been able to peddle his divisive and harmful rhetoric for years, without real consequence. For vulnerable minorities, this has manifested into rising levels of discrimination and hate crime against them, legitimised by the former President’s language.
One of the benefits of modern technology is that anyone can get their voice heard, facilitating greater communication and engagement and one defence provided for the delay in removing Trump’s Twitter account was that it may constitute a violation of his free speech.
However, when a user’s platform gives credence to hate speech, which is something that Trump’s Twitter account did regularly, the danger of this should not be underestimated. Trump’s rhetoric carried particular significance because of his popular influence and his status as a public figure and this enabled him to inspire widespread division and violence much more easily.
The longevity of Trump’s Twitter account therefore seems like a failure of responsibility, hiding behind an argument of free speech. Removing Trump from social media would not have moderated Trump’s views, of course, but it would have lessened the impact of his views in the wider public sphere. Going forward, I think social media should be more confident in holding even its most powerful users to account, in order to better safeguard minorities from the harm that such rhetoric can expose them to.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please see Support Line for support.
Caitlin Chatterton
Featured image courtesy of dole777 on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.