Twitter to block users from liking, retweeting or sharing tweets from world leaders that violate its policies
Twitter has announced that it will block users from liking, retweeting, or sharing posts from world leaders that it deems violate its rules.
The social media giant has come under criticism recently for allowing tweets from world leaders that promote terrorism, call for violence, and can be categorized as hate speech et al to stay up and be shared, and detailed in a blog post that it would be changing its policies.
Twitter said it will keep an offending tweet on its site if it is "newsworthy" and "if there is a clear public interest in doing so" but that it would likely be placed behind a notice that provides context about the violation and allows people to click through should they wish to see the content.
If a tweet does end up behind this notice, it will not appear in safe search, timeline when switched to top tweets, live event pages, recommended tweet push notifications, notifications tab, and explore.
Furthermore, it will receive limited engagement. Likes, Replies, and Retweets will be disabled to reduce the reach of these tweets, though users can retweet with comment (Quote Tweeting) so they can share it with additional context.
However, the company added that it would delete any tweet by a world leader if it promoted terrorism, interferes with elections (the spread of false information), violence or self-harm or involves illegal goods or services.
The change in rules to block retweets and likes may very well have come in response to increasing pressure from different quarters -- including a recent call from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris -- to censor US President Donald Trump, who has violated quite a few of the aforementioned rules that would normally see the tweet deleted.
For one, he had threatened North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and written, "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening — beyond a normal statement — and as I said, they will be met with fire, fury and, frankly, power the likes of which the world has never seen before."
"This is new territory for everyone – a service being used by world leaders to communicate directly to their constituents or other leaders, and at times, announce policy – and every decision we make sets a new precedent," said Twitter regarding its policy change.
"Twitter stands for the value of direct access to government and elected officials, and maintaining a robust public record provides benefits to accountability. This value will be weighed against the severity of the harm associated with the violation of these policies and the likelihood of offline harm."