Twitter blocked sharing of link to Trump advisor's phone number

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IANS | 21 Jun, 2018
Twitter has been accused of engaging in censorship after it suspended the accounts of some users who tweeted a link to a story that claims to have a phone number of the person who is believed to be the architect of the Donald Trump administration's controversial immigration policy.

Twitter's rules against harassment prohibits users from posting private information of others without their express consent.

What triggered the latest controversy surrounding the microblogging site is a story titled "Here's Stephen Miller's Cell Phone Number, If You Need It" published by Gizmodo Media Group-owned news and opinion site Splinter.

According to a report in CNET, Splinter on Wednesday tweeted out the story which includes a phone number Splinter says could put people in touch with Miller.

Twitter users who retweeted the original tweet found their accounts were being suspended and some users complained their accounts were being locked not for posting the private information but rather for pointing to a site that held the information, the report said.

In a statement on Wednesday, Twitter was quoted as saying that its rules do not allow publishing other people's private information without their permission.

"Directly linking to that information" also violates Twitter's rules, the microbloggiing site said.

"Today, we temporarily blocked accounts that shared this information until they deleted the Tweet that violated our rules," a Twitter spokesman was quoted as saying.

"At this time, the number that was previously being shared is no longer a valid number and, as such, we are no longer enforcing our policy against individuals Tweeting or linking to that information," the statement added.

The controversial immigration policy of the Trump administration until Wednesday enforced separation of children from parents at the US-Mexico border.

But bowing to public pressure, the US President on Wednesday signed an executive order that reverses the separation policy.