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Twitter: Here's What Trump is Not Allowed to Tweet About

What Twitter considers a rule-breaking tweet from a world leader includes personal threats, the promotion of terrorism, and posting a person's private information. But the company ultimately wants to serve as a public forum for politics, even when it involves 'saber-rattling.'

By Michael Kan
October 15, 2019
Trump Twitter Account

Twitter is trying to clarify what exactly constitutes a rule-breaking tweet for President Donald Trump and other world leaders. The result is a policy that bars direct threats of violence to specific individuals, but permits "foreign policy saber-rattling" in the interest of informing the public.

"We want to make it clear today that the accounts of world leaders are not above our policies entirely," the company said in a Tuesday blog post.

What Twitter considers a rule-breaking tweet includes personal threats, the promotion of terrorism, and posting a person's private information (for example, a home address or a private phone number). Sharing intimate photos of someone without their consent is also prohibited.

However, the company ultimately wants to let Trump and other world leaders engage in politics on Twitter, even as it can get divisive. The primary goal of the social media platform is "to serve public conversation, and protect the public's right to hear from their leaders and to hold them to account," today's blog post says.

The policy won't please everyone. Earlier this month, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris sent an open letter to Twitter, demanding the company suspend Trump's Twitter account after he made several controversial tweets, including one that mentioned his removal from the White House would cause a "Civil War."

"When this kind of abuse is being spewed from the most powerful office in the United States, the stakes are too high to do nothing," Harris claimed. The same letter complains about other tweets Trump made that call a White House whistleblower a spy without placing them in the "proper context," Harris said.

Today's blog post from Twitter doesn't directly address Trump's often controversial tweets or ongoing concerns about misinformation spreading over the platform. But the company is holding firm on its mission to provide a public forum. It also doesn't want to police the possible meanings a politically-themed tweet might suggest.

"We focus on the language of reported Tweets and do not attempt to determine all potential interpretations of the content or its intent," the company said, adding: "Presently, direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter Rules." (Back in Jan. 2018, Twitter permitted a Trump tweet that made a veiled threat of nuclear war against North Korea.)

If a tweet from a world leader does break the rules, Twitter may refrain from deleting it as well. The company can instead decide to put a warning label on the tweet when there's a "clear public interest value" in keeping the content up. The warning label approach, which was announced back in June, will let any user see the content by clicking through the warning. But at the same time, the company will prevent users from liking, replying, sharing, or retweeting the tweet in question. Users will only be able to express their opinions via the Retweet with Comment function. All other rule-breaking tweets can trigger a take down by Twitter.

Twitter disables tweeting via SMS after CEO Jack Dorsey is hacked
PCMag Logo Twitter disables tweeting via SMS after CEO Jack Dorsey is hacked

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About Michael Kan

Senior Reporter

I've been with PCMag since October 2017, covering a wide range of topics, including consumer electronics, cybersecurity, social media, networking, and gaming. Prior to working at PCMag, I was a foreign correspondent in Beijing for over five years, covering the tech scene in Asia.

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