Trump Is In A Feud With Twitter. But They Both Desperately Need Each Other.

President Donald Trump creates a lot of headaches for Twitter
TWTR
. He also creates a lot of headlines, engagement and much-needed cultural relevancy. Trump and Twitter are having a face-off of sorts, where both the POTUS and the social media company hold a significant amount of power in an odd couple relationship.

Trump wields the push regulation and Twitter holds the power of turning off Trump’s megaphone. Social media companies have a potential Achilles Heel if Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1996 is repealed or massively revised, and Trump has a vulnerability since Twitter is essential to his political future.

Trump and Twitter, despite the current saber-rattling and moves by Twitter to label some recent tweets by the President misleading, are co-dependent on each other. Trump helps out Twitter’s stock price and Twitter helps Trump massively increase his reach. Similar to the mutually-assured destruction (MAD) between the United States and Russia that prevented either side from launching its nuclear arsenal, the mutual power and vulnerabilities between Trump and Twitter mean that they will never take the other one down.

Twitter to Trump: remember Alex Jones? Freedom of speech and freedom of reach are not the same thing. Amplification matters. We may call Twitter a platform, but really it is a springboard. Why is Trump using a site that he opening mocks? Because it is central to his power.

Trump to Twitter: remember Myspace? How is Tumblr doing? Cultural relevance matters. Back in 2016, Twitter had a very murky path to profitability and was being shopped around to Disney.

In order to fully understand the strange dynamics at play, it is important to consider that how the general public thinks of Twitter (part media company, part quasi-governmental arbiter of free expression) is vastly different from how the law treats Twitter and other social media companies (as a neutral platform that is a conduit of conversation, not a publisher with editorial control).

What About Twitter’s Terms Of Service?

After Trump rekindled an unfounded murder accusation on Twitter toward MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, many commentators pointed out that these tweets may be in violation of the company’s terms of service in regards to harassment. The New York Times
NYT
’ Kara Swisher, a well-known tech insider and journalist intimately familiar with the rise of social media platforms, wrote a fiery Op-Ed that featured the widower’s personal plea to Jack Dorsey to take down the tweets.

Twitter is keeping the tweets.

While the company has stated that Trump’s actions do not violate its terms of service, it is just as likely that Trump is in a powerful position where he can’t violate its terms of service. A major tension for Twitter, along with every other social media company, is that they wield a significant amount of power in not only creating rules around speech—but also determining violations and carrying out punishments. In the coming years there will likely be an acceleration in creating some level of checks and balances on this awesome power, as it is never wise to have one entity be the judge, jury, and executioner.

So, yes, Twitter has the power to be the judge, jury, and executioner for Trump’s megaphone. If they wanted to, they could turn down his volume or unplug him. But with that action, they just might be lowering their own power.

Trump and Twitter are MAD for each other.