Twitter to flag 'abusive' tweets by top politicians
Art Moore
Presumably with prolific tweeter President Trump in mind, Twitter announced Thursday it will censor the messages of prominent government officials by “down-ranking” any that violate the social-media company’s rules.
Offending messages sent by verified political candidates and government officials with more than 100,000 followers will be flagged with a notice, the company said.
Users who want to view a flagged tweet will need to click on a notice that says: “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.”
The Washington Post reported Twitter will establish a special team to enforce the policy.
The labeled tweets will be seen by fewer Twitter users, the company said.
Twitter explained Thursday its “highest priority is to protect the health of the public conversation on Twitter, and an important part of that is ensuring our rules and how we enforce them are easy to understand.”
Twitter further explained that “by nature of their positions these leaders have outsized influence and sometimes say things that could be considered controversial or invite debate and discussion.”
“A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable.”
Twitter said that in instances in which a tweet “violates our rules and our review doesn’t find that it would be in the public interest to leave it up, we will require the account owner to remove the Tweet.”
“Either way, this notice will make our decision-making clearer.”
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