President Donald Trump accusedTwitter on Thursday night of making "falsetrends " and demanded again that Section 230 be "terminated."- Twitter users mocked the president using the hashtag #DiaperDon after he sat at a small table during a news conference and posted frustrated tweets.
- More than 230,000 posts have used #DiaperDon on Twitter.
- Trump also echoed his previous claims accusing Twitter of bias against conservatives.
- Among his 14 tweets Thursday, he also targeted Fox News, Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, and NFL players kneeling.
President
He also demanded an end to Section 230, which is part of a law that allows tech companies to set their own rules about how they regulate content on their platforms.
The hashtag emerged after a sometimes-tense news conference in which Trump snapped at the Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason, who asked the president whether he would concede if the Electoral College voted to officially make Joe Biden the winner of the US election, as it is scheduled to do on December 14. At one point, Mason appeared to talk over Trump, prompting him to respond "don't talk to me that way."
"You're just a lightweight," Trump continued. "Don't talk to me that way. I'm the president of the United States. Don't ever talk to the president that way."
In a tweet soon after, Trump attacked the news media for its coverage of the event — which began as a call Trump conducted with US troops for Thanksgiving — and reiterated his baseless claims attacking the integrity of the US election.
As Trump vented his frustration, Twitter users began to mock the president using the hashtag #DiaperDon, a reference that seemed to refer in part to the small desk he used for the press conference.
In response, Trump tweeted: "Twitter is sending out totally false 'Trends' that have absolutely nothing to do with what is really trending in the world. They make it up, and only negative 'stuff.'"
He also again claimed without evidence that Twitter discriminated against conservatives.
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2020
But he didn't stop there.
In the same hour, Trump tweeted that Section 230 — one of Big Tech's biggest shields — should be "terminated" for "the purposes of national security."
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2020
It wasn't the first time Trump had called for a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. In May, the president signed an executive order seeking to empower federal regulators to amend Section 230.
In recent months, Trump has escalated this repeal as both Twitter and Facebook tagged his posts with labels designed to prevent voting misinformation and premature declarations of victory during the election period.
Both Republicans and Democrats have said Section 230 needs to be updated.
But this became more of a reality October 15 when Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said he'd issue guidance redefining the law.
Read more: Republicans sold out democracy to appease Trump's loser tantrum
Trump posted and shared a total of 14 tweets on the Thanksgiving holiday, including tweets from conservative commentators, such as David J. Harris Jr., who suggested against all evidence that Trump might still win the election.
Other tweets targeted Fox News, Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, and NFL players kneeling before their game Thursday to protest racial injustice.
His flurry of tweets spurred on Twitter users to include #DiaperDon in their posts.
—Richard Hine (@richardhine) November 27, 2020
—Paul Carnahan (@pacarnahan) November 27, 2020