Trump set to lose special privileges on Twitter in January

Twitter gives special privileges to world leaders and some other officials, leaving rule-breaking content online if there's "a clear public interest value to keeping the tweet on the service."

San Francisco: From January 20 next year when the US President-Elect Joe Biden takes office, Donald Trump will lose special privileges on Twitter and his tweets will be treated as any other user.

Twitter gives special privileges to world leaders and some other officials, leaving rule-breaking content online if there’s “a clear public interest value to keeping the tweet on the service.”

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“Twitter confirmed that Trump’s @realDonaldTrump account will be subject to the same rules as any other user — including bans on inciting violence and posting false information about voting or the coronavirus pandemic,” The Verge reported on Saturday as Biden won the White House.

“Twitter’s approach to world leaders, candidates, and public officials is based on the principle that people should be able to choose to see what their leaders are saying with clear context,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying.

“This means that we may apply warnings and labels, and limit engagement to certain tweets. This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions”.

The changes will cover Trump’s personal account.

As the vote count began from November 3, Trump tweeted or retweeted nearly 37 times and Twitter flagged 13 of those tweets.

Of those disclaimers, 12 indicated that “some or all of the content” about the election in the President’s tweet is “disputed” and possibly “misleading.”

On Saturday, Twitter flagged nearly all tweets by Trump as he kept making “potentially misleading claims about an election” despite Democratic candidate Joe Biden winning the presidential race.