WarTweets

Social Media Video Game

2017 - 2021

WarTweets is a pervasive game that turns President Trump’s tweets into missiles that players can intercept by sending out real tweets to @realDonaldTrump from the game’s interface or on Twitter.

While microblog posts are not the best format for political debate, Twitter appears to be the preferred method for president Trump to communicate his intentions. In WarTweets, tweets made by @realDonaldTrump launch orange missiles that will destroy low and mid-income housing and build golden Trump Towers. Players must intercept Trump’s missiles by replying to @realDonaldTrump on Twitter.

US Courts have ruled that the Presidential Records Act of 1978 applies to Donald Trump’s personal Twitter account: @realDonaldTrump, which means that tweets made by this account are official presidential records. Federal judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that President Trump cannot block any Twitter users from reading or posting to this account because it is a “designated public forum”, so tweeting to @realDonaldTrump is a conduit for political speech that cannot legally be censored by the President, which provides a way for citizens to make their opinions of the Trump administration part of the official public record. WarTweets promotes political engagement through a playful form of networked dissent.

WarTweets is a collaboration with Derek Curry.