Twitter announces it will screen tweets of Public Figures

Twitter has announced that it intends to add what would essentially be warning labels and disclaimers to tweets posted by world leaders that allegedly violate the platform’s controversial and highly inconsistent policies concerning abuse, harassment, threats and so-called hate speech.

While the social media network has denied that this new rule has anything to do with President Donald Trump, there’s a strong belief that the rule is in fact centered on stymieing him.

“[T]here are certain cases where it may be in the public’s interest to have access to certain Tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules,” the social media network announced in a blog post Thursday.

“On the rare occasions when this happens, we’ll place a notice — a screen you have to click or tap through before you see the Tweet — to provide additional context and clarity. We’ll also take steps to make sure the Tweet is not algorithmically elevated on our service, to strike the right balance between enabling free expression, fostering accountability, and reducing the potential harm caused by these Tweets.”

The network claims it’s implementing this policy on behalf of “the public’s interest.”

Sometimes, we decide that it may be in the public’s interest for certain Tweets to remain on Twitter, even if they would otherwise break our rules. We're going to start using a new notice to make it clear when we make these decisions. Read more:https://t.co/XqlJ9KHgir

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) June 27, 2019

The policy was reportedly announced in response to complaints that Twitter allows world leaders to allegedly violate its rules without consequences. These complaints have of course centered on Trump, whom left-wing radicals in the media and elsewhere have falsely accused of violating Twitter’s policies.

The principle behind the policy, Twitter explained in its blog post, is that it’s in the public’s interest for some tweets that allegedly violate its rules to remain up.

“Serving the public conversation includes providing the ability for anyone to talk about what matters to them; this can be especially important when engaging with government officials and political figures,” the post reads.

“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.”

Some on the far-left have responded to the announcement by complaining that these disclaimers will bolster the right’s otherwise substantiated claim of social media censorship.

“Republicans in Washington, including Trump, often claim without real evidence that technology companies are biased against conservatives,” CNN lamented.