James Martin / CNET
It doesn't seem like long before Donald Trump is forced to follow the same rules and regulations as everyone else on Twitter - or risk having his tweets removed.
It looks like Trump - aka the notoriously provocative tweeter @realDonaldTrump - is leaving the Oval Office in January as several news outlets call in the presidential race for Joe Biden on Saturday. And by that point, his tweets would no longer be subject to the "public interest" exceptions that Twitter makes for government leaders.
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The exemption "applies to current world leaders and candidates for office and not to individuals if they no longer hold these positions," said a Twitter spokesman in a statement on Saturday.
The social network leaves some posts from officials even if the content doesn't work Rules against things like abusive behavior or glorifying violence. For example, in May, Twitter posted a tweet from Trump referring to anti-racism protests that said, "When the looting begins, the shootings begin". There was another protest-related Trump tweet in June that spoke of people "being hit with serious violence"!
Continue reading: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are grappling with misinformation in elections
More recently, a number of Trump tweets with unsubstantiated allegations about the presidential election have been made available to Twitter users. And then there were Trump's tweets about the coronavirus.
In all of these cases, the social network has covered the tweets with a warning sign that provides a link to more information or context. Users must click a "View" link in the warning to read the post. Twitter allows Tweets to remain accessible in this way once it is determined to be in the public interest This means that a post "adds directly to the understanding or discussion of a matter of public interest," according to a company page on the exceptions.
"Twitter's approach to world leaders, candidates and officials is based on the principle that people should be able to choose what their leaders say in a clear context," the Twitter spokesman said in a statement on Saturday. "This means we may apply warnings and labels and limit engagement to certain tweets."
But once Trump is no longer president, any illegal tweets posted on his @ realDonaldTrump account may be booted.
Twitter notes that it does not give the heads of government completely free rein. Certain types of content can be removed independently including posts promoting terrorism and tweets containing other people's private information, such as: B. an address or a home phone number, without their consent.
