New Twitter survey asks how the rules should apply to world leaders

During his four years in the White House, Donald Trump escaped with things on Twitter that would have earned most users multiple suspensions, if not an outright ban. Now the social media platform wants to know what you think.

Twitter is conducting a survey from March 19 to April 12 that solicits comments from people who have ideas and opinions on the platform’s policy of interacting with world leaders. So if you don’t have and still don’t care about the double standard that Twitter applies to political leaders, this is your chance to say it in a way that matters.

“Twitter is interested in hearing your thoughts on how we should shape our policies and apply our rules regarding the participation of world leaders in the public conversation,” reads the survey’s introduction. “Your opinions will be used to help us define this policy and future iterations.”

You can find it here.

The survey features a series of randomly generated scenarios, with things such as the problematic thing said (like ethnic slurs or misinformation about COVID-19) and the number of past offenses changing from scenario to scenario. . Each asks users to choose the answer they prefer from a set of fixed choices.

After a few scenarios like the one above, the survey shifts gears to ask a series of questions about how world leaders should be held accountable for bad behavior, including whether a permanent suspension should be a possibility and what circumstances would lead to that result. Participants also have the option to write comments directly, but note that there is a limit of 1000 characters for any response.

This is one of those rare product surveys that might be worth your while. Especially if you’ve been troubled at some point in the past four years by Twitter’s lack of action as Trump has repeatedly flouted the platform’s policies.

The point is, there are easy connections between Trump’s provocative Twitter presence since 2015 in particular and the gruesome scene that unfolded on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. attempted an insurgency, the evidence that his words and actions in previous years have radicalized supporters is painfully clear.

The actual shape of how a platform like Twitter reacts now, following such a brutal lesson as January 6, remains to be seen. But at least the company (apparently) gives users a voice to guide those decisions.