When the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman got wind of this news:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration calls on #Iran to unblock Instagram, other social media amid protests
— Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) January 2, 2018
She saw a golden opportunity to bust Trump for his hypocrisy with regards to Twitter. Unfortunately, this take was the result:
The president often blocks individual people from seeing the @realDonaldTrump Twitter feed https://t.co/cVoLLlXrGR
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 2, 2018
Yeah … no, Maggie. That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.
https://twitter.com/LukasMikelionis/status/948251433035554817
https://twitter.com/alwaysonoffense/status/948249641715490821
Not even remotely.
Oh, come on. You know better.
— Grant Bosse (@grantbosse) January 2, 2018
Does she, though?
https://twitter.com/CapitalMinority/status/948251066210177025
https://twitter.com/seanagnew/status/948247747135721474
Sweety, no.
— Jacob Ritter (@Mornscreek) January 2, 2018
You have got to be kidding.
— ?It's?Almost ⛄️Christmas? (@jtLOL) January 2, 2018
That’s insane https://t.co/9hobE1nZdE
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) January 2, 2018
What the hell? How is that even a comparison?
— Ｂｅｔｏ Ｏ＇Ｊｏｅｌ, Esq. (@newyorkjew) January 2, 2018
It’s not. Not a remotely logical one, anyway.
Do you not see a faulty equivalence here? The President blocking one person on his "personal" Twitter feed /= to a government telling their people they cannot have access to the interwebs. What a logical stretch.
— Philly GOP (@PhillyGOP) January 2, 2018
Oh c'mon. Blocking individual people from your twitter account is not quite the same thing as a government blocking an entire country from using social media platforms to organize an insurrection.
— karen gardner (@karenagardner) January 2, 2018
How are these two things even remotely similar? Blocking individuals from seeing his account is a bit different than blocking a social media network from everyone in a country ? https://t.co/kUWpFBK8HT
— Persnickety (@Dawnsfire) January 2, 2018
This is not really comparable at all. Get back to me when Trump stops citizens from reading ANY messages from other citizens. https://t.co/7vyZJbZ8fQ
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 2, 2018
Because blocking annoying individuals from a personal account is exactly the same as a nationwide blackout of social media platforms in order to obfuscate a violent crackdown on peaceful protestors.
You farging icehole. https://t.co/g6ITHTDypB
— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) January 2, 2018
Blocking people on twitter is the exact same thing as instituting a government policy shut down of all social media. JFC they really are starting the year off this dumb.
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) January 2, 2018
They really, really are.
https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/948260887030353920
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional tweets.
***
Update:
Haberman pushed back against the criticism, claiming she never meant to draw any sort of equivalence between Trump’s Twitter blocking and the Iranian regime’s attempt to silence social media:
I'm not making a comparison, though I appreciate you want me to be. I am saying that this president, who never worked in public service prior to this, has a history of comments/acts at odds w some ideals of the US presidency https://t.co/OQ2APu0eWV
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 2, 2018
I don’t think Trump should block people. I don’t even block people. But that’s not the same as Iran blocking Twitter itself. https://t.co/Wbg1KVs1O1
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 2, 2018
I don’t either and didn’t think I was saying that. Perhaps inartfully, but my point is it’s always worth recalling Citizen Trump versus the presidency of a Trump. Doesn’t mean things are equal. https://t.co/l4Sa6jgeOb
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 2, 2018
It was the apparent equivalence that got people hot and bothered, not the criticism of Trump’s Twitter use https://t.co/6fAvVCRPsf
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 2, 2018
Was not saying they are the same thing. But having clarified that also is engendering “we know what you REALLY meant” response that’s pretty Twitter-specific https://t.co/3inkNROjWt
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 2, 2018
Um, OK.