[My home address and email address]
31
January 2017
Twitter, Inc
Headquarters
1355 Market Street
Suite 900
San Francisco, CA 94103
USA
Headquarters
1355 Market Street
Suite 900
San Francisco, CA 94103
USA
FAO Customer Service Team
Dear Sirs
REQUEST FOR REVISION TO POLICIES IN THE LIGHT OF DONALD
TRUMP’S TWEETS
I am just an ordinary member of the public living in the UK
who has occasionally used my own Twitter account and who follows the news.
I have seen a number of recent tweets by President Donald
Trump about foreign policy issues, including his proposal to build a wall
between Texas and Mexico at Mexico’s expense, and his views on China’s policies
regarding disputed territory in the South China Sea. There are other examples,
but in both of these cases, Mr Trump has announced his views and policy
positions on Twitter first, before raising them through the usual diplomatic
channels. In both cases, the reactions
from those countries have been negative.
The fact that Mr Trump has made his views and policy
positions known first via Twitter has had an aggravating effect on the tensions
already existing between the USA and those two nations. Countries like China give high importance to
diplomatic protocol. His use of Twitter
adds uncertainty over the official nature of such announcements, in view of
Twitter’s status as a social media network.
Mr Trump can decide to launch nuclear weapons. China also nuclear weapons. The potential consequences of escalating
tensions between China and USA could be catastrophic for the world and Twitter
should not allow itself to be used as a vehicle for the escalation of
international tensions. The impulsive
and informal nature of social media posting is corrosive to good diplomatic
relations between nations.
I do not believe that Twitter should be used for the making
of public policy announcements by any politicians, not least President
Trump. I would like Twitter to revise
its policies accordingly and urgently so that future tweets by Mr Trump on political
issues are not permitted. If necessary,
his account should be closed.
I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your
assistance.
Yours sincerely
Michael Chambers
