Twitter is changing how it handles tweets from politicians and government leaders including President Donald Trump that violate its rules but are still in the public’s interest. The social network on Thursday said it’ll start placing a notice over tweets that break its rules, and users will have to clip or tap on the warning to see the tweet.
This notice will read as follows: “The Twitter rules about abusive behavior apply to this Tweet. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain available.” Anyone who sees such a notice will be able to hit the “View” button to see the Tweet anyway.
Of course, not every tweet from a government official will necessarily be in the public interest. Twitter has a set of guidelines it will follow to determine whether or not a tweet should be “protected,” which include considerations like whether removing the tweet would “hide context or prevent people from understanding an issue.”
President Trump, a prolific Twitter user, has on multiple occasions accused social media companies of being biased against conservatives. Social media companies, for their part, have apologized for how they’ve handled some conservative content, but deny any bias and say they don’t censor political views. So far, Trump hasn’t tweeted about Twitter’s latest move.
In addition to putting the notice over tweets that break its rules, Twitter said those tweets will appear less prominently on the site and won’t show up in places like safe search or the Explore tab. The notice won’t be applied to any tweets sent before Thursday.
