Twitter: World leaders’ accounts not entirely above policies

SAN FRANCISCO >> Twitter says world leaders aren’t entirely above its ban on users threatening violence or promoting terrorism on the site.

The San Francisco company is clarifying its rules as some Democrats say they would like to see President Donald Trump booted off Twitter, his favored platform for filterless communication with the world.

But while Twitter says it will enforce its policies against any user when it comes to material such as child sexual abuse, direct threats of violence against a private individual, or posting someone’s private information, it doesn’t appear Trump’s account is in imminent danger.

A blog post this week expanded on Twitter’s policy governing tweets. In June, Twitter said world leaders’ tweets that violate its rules but have a clear public-interest value might get a warning label. The label would provide context on the violation and let people to click through to see the tweet if they want to.

While Twitter said in June that it will not use its algorithms to “elevate” or otherwise promote tweets that have a warning label, it now says it also won’t let people retweet or comment on them. People will still be able to “quote tweet” the material. Quote tweeting lets users add their own message above someone else’s tweet and post it on their own timeline. This nuance shows the fine line Twitter is trying to walk with its policy — it wants to promote free expression and allow people to comment on controversial tweets, but it doesn’t want to promote them on their own, without context.

With all that, the company has yet to slap a tweet with a warning label since putting its policy into effect. So is it all for show? Below are some questions and answers about Twitter’s policy.