Will Donald Trump lose his blue tick on Twitter? Site to bring back checkmark in 2021 while POTUS steps down
President Donald Trump might have to bear the brunt of his controversial and unverified tweets as Twitter has announced that it will update its process of verifying accounts with a blue tick that it had earlier stopped in 2017. The company that deals with the micro-blogging site has introduced a new verification policy.
The policy, which is still in the development stage currently lays out criteria for getting the blue tick mark and how those who currently have the blue tick badge might even lose their verifications under the new policy.
“We're starting by more clearly defining some of the core types of Notable Accounts that are served by verification. Per the proposed policy, ‘the blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic. To receive the blue badge, your account must be notable and active’.”
Twitter has said that anyone looking for the verification tick must have an active and complete account. Also, they must not violate Twitter’s rules of flouting which may result in the social media site taking away blue ticks. Twitter’s rules prohibit numerous actions from putting on abusive and intimidating content, along with false claims on how to participate in civic processes.
According to reports, all of such breaking of rules can be seen in Donald Trump's account. So will he lose the Twitter verification blue tick mark now?
Can Trump lose verification or be banned?
The POTUS is presently protected by his "world leaders" status, so any Twitter posts he has shared that break Twitter's rules have been still considered as "newsworthy". Now Twitter has said that if Trump hands over the presidency to President-elect Joe Biden during the 2021 inauguration ceremony, he will also lose his "world leader" protection.
This means that he would no longer be immune and might come under scrutiny for false claims. He might see the verification mark removed – and even a potential ban from Twitter if he continues to flout rules, according to reports.
When Trump broke rules
From Covid-19 and US presidential elections to launching brazen attacks on public figures, Trump has reportedly often made fallacious claims and unchecked claims. Ever since the polls closed on Tuesday, November 3, Trump has been consistently making baseless allegations of voter fraud and how Democrats are attempting to "steal" the election from him.
The microblogging site, instead of taking down his Twitter account, has been flagging his tweets and issuing warnings, preventing his unfounded messages from being shared on the platform. For instance, on November 5, Trump tweeted that any vote that came in after the Election day "will not" be counted.
Within seconds of the Republican's tweet, Twitter flagged the message, saying: "Some or all content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process." The tweet, after a few minutes, was altogether removed.
Besides the election race, Trump, since he took over the presidency has expressed his disdain for many high-profile personalities in his blasting tweets. To be precise there have been 170 times that the incumbent has used the word “losers” to disparage public figures like singer Cher, producer Danny Zuker, entrepreneur Mark Cuban and many more.
According to The Atlantic, Trump’s Twitter archive includes Trump’s 371 tweets about “polls” and 91 tweets about global warming “which are usually some version of him referring to the phenomenon as ‘fake’ or a ‘hoax’.”
Despite such false claims, Twitter has never banned or taken strict action against the POTUS due to his protection. However, in 2020 the site did start moderating the sitting president’s tweets to curb the spread of misinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic that Trump has “downplayed” in the past.
The Atlantic reported that Twitter slapped warning labels on some of his tweets and briefly suspended his son Donald Trump Jr for sharing a video that claims hydroxychloroquine is a cure for Covid-19. Now, it is to be seen if Trump follows the old path of breaking rules which may create problems for himself on verification when Twitter’s new policy comes into force and Biden assumes power.