The office of the presidency comes with many perks, as it should. There’s Air Force One and Marine One, the plane and helicopter that ferry the president and their staff around the world; there’s the White House kitchen, able to whip up whatever meal strikes the president’s fancy; and there’s the Secret Service, of course, there to protect the president from whatever threats pop up from day to day.
There’s also the deference shown by Twitter’s policy toward world leaders, allowing them to tweet whatever they want even when it’s in conflict with the platform’s other rules.
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It’s something President Trump has taken advantage of over the past four years, and Twitter recently confirmed he’d be losing it when President-Elect Joe Biden takes over the Oval Office.
Up to now, Twitter has had to walk a fine line with President Trump’s usage of the platform.
In the case of world leaders, Twitter will place tweets that would otherwise break its rules behind a notice that indicates it’s in violation and provides interested users with some context as to why it’s been flagged.
For everyone else, that tweet would earn the user a block from their account until deleting the offending tweet, and repeated violations could result in temporary suspensions, or possibly even a permanent ban from the platform.
Spreading misinformation and encouraging violence are both violations of Twitter’s rules, and hundreds of President Trump’s tweets have been flagged for those violations just in 2020.
President Trump drew widespread condemnation for tweeting “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” over the racial justice and police brutality protests during the summer, a tweet that Twitter flagged and hid for “glorifying violence.”
The number of flagged tweets has gone up since Election Day in particular, as the president continues to dispute the election results and spread baseless conspiracy theories regarding the outcome.
Even the policy of flagging the president’s misleading tweets has come under fire from his supporters. President Trump, as well as many other conservative figures, have decried even the flags as censorship of right-wing voices and views.
However, the Electoral College has now spoken, confirming the will of the American people; Joe Biden will be the next president.
And on January 20, 2021, at 12 pm EST, the transition will be final as Joe Biden takes the oath of office and Donald Trump becomes a private citizen once again.
Air Force One, Marine One, and the White House kitchen will all be at Biden’s disposal, as will the @POTUS Twitter account, and Trump will no longer enjoy his world leader status with the platform.
That means that Trump will now have to play by Twitter’s rules more consistently.
As a Twitter spokesperson confirmed to Forbes , there’s a real potential for the platform to ban Trump.
Twitter has no set limit for a certain number of violations that result in suspensions or bans, but according to Forbes , Twitter also doesn’t have a set of “special rules” for one of its most popular and controversial users.
So, while Twitter and Trump have a long and intertwined relationship, it’s under increasing strain.
Trump joined the platform in 2009, but it became essential to his election campaign in 2016, as he saw it as a way to skirt the mainstream media filter and take his messages directly to his followers.
At the same time, Trump’s use of Twitter drew countless supporters to the platform as well, helping to build its user base.
However, the relationship has soured to the point of Trump calling for a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields social media platforms from lawsuits over users’ posts.
What do you think? Will Twitter ban Trump after Inauguration Day? Should Section 230 be repealed? Let us know in the comments!
h/t: Forbes
