WarTweets

Pervasive Protest Game

WarTweets is a pervasive game that turned President Trump’s tweets into missiles that players can intercept by sending tweets to @realDonaldTrump from the game’s interface, or on Twitter. In the game, every tweet made by @realDonaldTrump launches an orange missile that will destroy low and mid-income housing and replace it with a golden Trump tower—if it reaches its target. Players have several days to intercept Trump’s missiles by tweeting their dissent, or their approval, to @realDonaldTrump. WarTweets was nominated for an IndieCade Spotlight Award in 2019.

Once registered as a player, the game could be played through an online interface, or by simply using #WarTweets when tweeting at the President. Players could also tweet directly from the game’s online interface, which included real-time embedded content from the @realDonaldTrump account as well as previous tweets that were "targeted" due to their impact or media attention.

WarTweets was the gamification of a series of legal rulings and the politicization of a networked communications platform.

WarTweets was made possible when 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.” This meant that tweeting to @realDonaldTrump was a conduit for political speech that could not legally be censored by the President. Previously, US Courts had ruled that the Presidential Records Act of 1978 applies to Donald Trump’s personal Twitter account: @realDonaldTrump because it was being used for official announcements and proclamations. This meant that tweets made by this account during his time in office are official presidential records that will be preserved in the National Archives. Tweeting to Trump during his presidency provided a way for citizens to make their opinions of the Trump administration part of the official public record. WarTweets gamified this process, promoting political engagement through a playful form of networked dissent. The game ended on January 8, 2021 when Twitter permanently suspended Trump (this decision was later reversed by Elon Musk).

WarTweets gameplay