Administration

Protesters accuse Twitter CEO of being ‘complicit’ after Trump nuclear button tweet

An activist group in San Francisco is calling out Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for being “complicit” in President Trump’s tweet boasting about the size and strength of his nuclear launch button.

Resist SF on Tuesday night projected the phrases “@jack is #complicit” and “Ban @realDonaldTrump” on Twitter’s headquarters. They are also planning a protest for Wednesday night.

A Facebook event for the protest accuses Dorsey of “endangering the world” and violating its own rules by not banning Trump after he tweeted that his nuclear button is “much bigger” and “more powerful” than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s.

Trump’s tweet was apparently in response to Kim’s comment earlier this week that he has a nuclear launch button at his desk. 

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed to The Hill that the tweet does not violate its terms of service because it is not a “specific threat.”

“You may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people,” Twitter’s policy reads.

“Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, has enabled @realDonaldTrump from his first dog whistles in the birther movement to his latest nuclear pissing contest,” Resist SF wrote in the Facebook event. “Twitter is endangering the world and breaking its own terms of service to do it. Trump or Jack must go.”

This is not the first time Twitter has been criticized for “enabling” the president. Trump’s repeated Twitter attacks on individuals and businesses have led many of the president’s critics to argue that he has violated the platform’s rules. 

Dorsey in the past has defended the company’s decision not to ban Trump’s account or force him to delete certain tweets, saying that the tweets are newsworthy and important for political transparency.

—Updated at 10:44 a.m.