Twitter Apologizes for ‘Pain’ Caused by Trump’s Tweets Falsely Implying Joe Scarborough Committed Murder, but Takes No Action Against President
Twitter issued a public apology to the family of a woman whom Donald Trump has repeatedly insinuated in tweets may have been murdered by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.
But for now, the social network isn’t taking any actions against Trump’s account or the offending tweets on the subject.
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The company’s statement comes after Timothy Klausutis, the husband of Lori Klausutis — who worked for Scarborough when he was a U.S. congressman — sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last week requesting that Twitter delete Trump’s tweets alluding to a years-old debunked conspiracy theory, as reported by the New York Times. Lori Klausutis died in 2001.
“We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “We’ve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly.”
Twitter already has rules in place banning bullying and harassment. The company grants special exemptions to Donald Trump and other political figures for tweets that would be violations for regular users, as long as Twitter deems those posts in the “public interest.” Twitter last year put into place a policy under which tweets by political figures that violate its regular policies would be displayed with a warning notice in front of tweets — but to date, it hasn’t applied such warnings to any of Trump’s posts.
On Twitter, Trump in recent weeks has promoted the idea that Scarborough killed Lori Klausutis, even though law enforcement officials found no evidence of foul play in connection with her death. On Saturday, Trump explicitly called for the case to be reopened, saying, “A blow to her head? Body found under his desk? Left Congress suddenly? Big topic of discussion in Florida…and, he’s a Nut Job (with bad ratings). Keep digging, use forensic geniuses!”
That came after Trump on May 12 tweeted, “When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!”
On Tuesday, May 26, Trump continued his campaign to falsely smear Scarborough in the case. He claimed in a pair of tweets that when the host of MSNBC “Morning Joe” and his spouse and co-host Mika Brzezinski interviewed him in 2016, “I would always be thinking… about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing? Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I won’t bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will?”
In a letter dated May 21 to Dorsey, provided to the New York Times, Timothy Klausutis asked the CEO to delete Trump’s tweets on the matter, writing,”My wife deserves better.”
Klausutis wrote that Trump “tweeted to his nearly 80 million followers alluding to the repeatedly debunked falsehood that my wife was murdered by her boss, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough. The son of the president followed and more directly attacked my wife by tweeting to his followers as the means of spreading this vicious lie.”
Continued Klausutis, “I am now angry as well as frustrated and grieved. I understand that Twitter’s policies about content are designed to maintain the appearance that your hands are clean you provide the platform and the rest is up to users. However, in certain past cases, Twitter has removed content and accounts that are inconsistent with your terms of service.”
Lori Klausutis worked in one of then Rep. Joe Scarborough’s offices in Fort Walton, Fla., as a constituent services coordinator. She died unexpectedly at 28, and an autopsy revealed it was due to an undiagnosed heart condition that caused her to pass out and hit her head, which was the cause of death. Florida police ruled that her death was an accident and there was no foul play involved.
Jordan Moreau contributed to this report.
Put Your Money Where You Lying Mouth Is Twitter:
OP Ed: Joe Scarborough should sue Trump and the scum at Twitter who have for years allowed Criminal Donald Trump to break the rules and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie! I have to think that Criminal Donald Trump and Putin own the moderators at Twitter who allow all the lying, propaganda and Trump and Putin's bots that spread lies on Twitter. The first thing our new government should do is locate the Trump and Putin owned Twitter moderators and arrest them and make them confess.
OP Ed: Joe Scarborough should sue Trump and the scum at Twitter who have for years allowed Criminal Donald Trump to break the rules and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie and lie! I have to think that Criminal Donald Trump and Putin own the moderators at Twitter who allow all the lying, propaganda and Trump and Putin's bots that spread lies on Twitter. The first thing our new government should do is locate the Trump and Putin owned Twitter moderators and arrest them and make them confess.
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When a social media company has to apologize for the actions of the President of the United States it's time to elect a different president. Enough is enough.
ReplyDeleteJack Dorcey, head of Twitter allowed this lynching of Joe. Trump provided the rope and Dorcey and his Trump owned mods provided the tree. The time has come to get a real rope and a real tree and apply some do it yourself justice.
ReplyDeleteGreat that "twitter" apologized to the family of the woman, but what about apologizing to Joe Scarborough who is the object of trump's misinformation campaign?
ReplyDeleteWhen a social media company has to apologize for the actions of the President of the United States it's time to elect a different president. Enough is enough.
ReplyDeleteWhy hasn’t Trump Jr. been banned from Twitter? He holds no official title in the administration.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is Putin has dirt on the head of twitter Jack Dorcey and that is why twitter is infested with Russian trolls and propaganda bots. Twitter bans anyone who is anti Trump getting popular.
DeleteMaybe Putin has some of the same dirt on Dorcey that he has on Trump such as the pedophilia and the laundering of drug money. Wealth and depravity go hand in hand.
In other words there are special rules for President Trump.
ReplyDeleteThis underscores the need for internet platforms to bear responsibility for legal damages created by their users. The current law protecting them needs to be repealed or at least changed to address situations where the company is well aware of the harm being caused.
ReplyDeletePretty obvious twitter is working with Donald trump.
ReplyDeleteOh the irony. "Twitter already has rules in place banning bullying and harassment."
ReplyDeleteWhat was Melania doing again??
Twitter needs to, at the very least, suspend this so-called president's account for a time. The rest of us would be treated thusly if we spread conspiracy theories as he does.
ReplyDeleteJack Dorcey keeps Treasonous Trump around because trainwrecks like Trump drive people to Twitter and that means money. If you must use Twitter use the Opera browser and turn on the ad blocker. Jack is even more guilty than Trump because Jack Dorcey knows better.
DeleteWhy is Twitter apologizing, shouldn't Trump be the one to apologize? Twitter should be deleting his account.
ReplyDeleteTime to get a Lawyer and sue the pants off Twitter, Jack Dorsey, and Trump.
ReplyDeleteTwitter, IF THEY HAD ANY MORALS, should shut down Dump's Twitter feed every time he falsely accuses someone (and it happens all the time).
ReplyDeleteWhat ever happened to corporate responsibility and their 'Terms of Service'?
Why in the world do we have a President, who's comments and behaviors we continuously have to be embarrassed by and apologize for? Can anyone explain that to me?
ReplyDeleteWorse than Trump are the trash who voted him in. Anyone who would vote for a Republican is totally depraved. If we don't bring the MAGAts to heel we will have a congress full of Trumps and worse.
Delete