Twitter considering labeling Trump tweets that violate rules

A Twitter executive on Wednesday said the company is considering a new feature that will label tweets from politicians, including President Trump, when they violate Twitter rules. 

Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s head of legal, policy, and trust and safety, at a Washington Post event on Wednesday said the company might start annotating offensive tweets from public figures with a message about why they remain up. 

{mosads}Twitter has long held that some posts from public figures should remain up because they are “newsworthy,” even when they violate Twitter guidelines. 

“One of the things we’re working really closely on with our product and engineering folks is, ‘How can we label that?’” Gadde said during the Post event. “How can we put some context around it so people are aware that that content is actually a violation of our rules and it is serving a particular purpose in remaining on the platform?” 

Gadde was responding to a question about whether Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants on Twitter.

“When we leave that content on the platform there’s no context around that and it just lives on Twitter and people can see it and they just assume that is the type of content or behavior that’s allowed by our rules,” Gadde said.

Twitter’s policies dictate that tweets from politicians are important to public debate.

Trump has used his Twitter account to insult and berate his foes, including news organizations, Democrats, actors and more, raising questions from critics about why Twitter does not step in. 

Gadde said the newsworthiness clause does not protect all tweets from a public figure.