According to the blog post, the new rule will apply to government officials, people running for public office or people being considered for a government position. To qualify for this rule, a user must have a verified account and more than 100,000 followers.
“There are certain cases where it may be in the public’s interest to have access to certain Tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules,” Twitter wrote.
Under the new rule, Twitter will place notices on offending tweets that users will have to “click or tap through” before they see the tweets, “to provide additional context and clarity.”
“We’ll also take steps to make sure the tweet is not algorithmically elevated on our service, to strike the right balance between enabling free expression, fostering accountability, and reducing the potential harm caused by these tweets,” the post added.
Twitter has been considering changing its policies on blocking public access to posts by leaders for quite some time. However, when US President Donald Trump fired off tweets saying that North Korea wouldn’t “be around much longer” and that the US has a “much bigger & more powerful nuclear button,” the social media platform didn’t take action.
At the time, the company said that it was in “public interest” to keep the tweets up online. In a January 2018 blog post, the company further explained, “Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate … It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.”
On Thursday, Trump, whose tweets tend to cause controversy, censured technology giants for quelling public commentary.
“Twitter is just terrible, what they do. They don’t let you get the word out,” Trump told Fox Business Network. “I’ll tell you what, they should be sued, because what’s happening with the bias — and now you see it with that executive yesterday from Google, the hatred for the Republicans. It’s not even like ‘Gee! Let’s lean Democrat.’”
“These people are all Democrats; it’s totally biased toward Democrats. If I announced tomorrow that I’m going to become a nice liberal Democrat, I would pick up five times more followers,” he added.
Following Twitter’s announcement of its new rule Thursday, its share price dropped by 1.4%.