Rabbis, priests and imams tell Twitter it needs to delete Trump as soon as possible
'We [...] feel the effects of the President’s hatred-filled Twitter messages on the ground—scratched onto Synagogue doors and spewed at Hijab-wearing women on the subway'
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Rabbis, priests and imams have pleaded with Twitter to remove Donald Trump's account.
A full 35 leaders have signed a letter, co-ordinated by the Interfaith Center of New York, to beg Twitter to remove Mr Trump's account and stop him from being able to post messages to the tens of millions of people who follow him.
In doing so, they join other public figures including UK MPs to suggest that Twitter needs to delete the President's account. And like those British lawmakers, the faith leaders suggest that the company is endangering the world by allowing his account to say around.
"As a group of New York City faith leaders with congregations and communities in one of the most religiously diverse cities in the world, we are writing with deep concern over the way that Twitter is being used by our current President as a platform for incendiary and misleading images that fan the flames of religiously-based hatreds and prejudice," the letter begins. "We are calling on you, the CEO of a revolutionary technology company, to embrace more fully the responsibility that comes with the power of your platform and make sure President Trump is subject to the same rules about hateful conduct as other Twitter users."
It goes onto note that Mr Trump is almost certainly breaking the rules that every Twitter user signs up to when they register with the service. "For Twitter to treat his account differently than other accounts shows a lack of ethical consistency with a grave cost to our country," it reads.
Twitter has admitted that it is treating the President's account differently to those owned by normal users. It says it is doing so because his tweets are newsworthy, and that there is value in keeping Mr Trump's tweets and account online so that people can see them.
But the faith leaders say that doing so is encouraging divisiveness and hate in their communities, and that the desire to shut down the account isn't simply an abstract concern.
"We religious leaders in New York City feel the effects of the President’s hatred-filled Twitter messages on the ground—scratched onto Synagogue doors and spewed at Hijab-wearing women on the subway," it concludes. "For this reason, we are writing to ask you to ensure that your company will provide equal treatment for the President’s account when it comes to his violations of your Hateful Conduct policies."
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