Why Trump’s Tweets Aren’t Going Anywhere
Twitter will allow world leaders to post tweets that violate its terms of service, but will enforce new rules about sharing those tweets, the company announced Tuesday.
Twitter has previously come under fire for allowing politicians to post racist content or target individual people. Earlier this month, Sen. Kamala Harris called on Twitter to suspend President Donald Trump for tweets that specifically targeted a whistle-blower, in what Harris claimed was a violation of Twitter’s terms of service. Twitter did not suspend Trump—nor will it take action against other world leaders, according to a new company blog post. Instead, if Twitter decides a politician’s tweet broke the rules, it will leave it on the site, accompanied by a disclaimer.
“If a Tweet from a world leader does violate the Twitter Rules but there is a clear public interest value to keeping the Tweet on the service, we may place it behind a notice that provides context about the violation and allows people to click through should they wish to see the content,” Twitter’s announcement reads.