- Twitter will now hide messages from political figures who break the rules.
- The website will not ban or remove these messages from the website.
- Many expect this is a response to President Trump’s tweets.
SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter announced last Thursday that they will now put warning labels on political figures who break the terms of service of the site.
The Rules And Conditions
A Twitter blog post gives us all the details about what to expect. The new rules will only apply to certain individuals. They must represent a government or they must be awaiting confirmation. They have to have more than 100,000 followers and be verified on Twitter.
If an account meets these criteria, then their account is subject to the new regulation. If one of these accounts creates an abusive tweet, the tweet will be placed behind a warning label. Users will not immediately see the hidden tweet when scrolling through their timeline. They can push a button to see why the tweet is hidden in the first place.
ElectionOdds.com thinks this is likely a response to President Trump’s Twitter account. In the past, he threatened North Korea with nuclear war on his account. He had also called Omarosa Manigault a dog when she was fired.
Trump has repeatedly violated the Twitter terms of service ever since he became President. News outlets like GQ have reported on this fact. But, Twitter said that the warning labels will only be used on rare occasions. It is unlikely that a large number of Trump’s tweets will be behind a warning label.
Twitter does not plan to ban accounts from political figures from the website. They hope that this new measure will foster accountability while honoring free expression. Twitter said that they are now monitoring tweets that might need these new warning labels. But, they cannot predict when will be the first time they use the label.