TRUMP: Twitter clarifies when world leaders’ tweets could cross the line

Social media giants, Twitter has come out to clarify when world leaders tweets could cross the line, with their posts on the platform.

The company has sought to explain its logic on policing the tweets of elected politicians, and what behaviours would actually cross the currently theoretical line.

“We don’t expect everyone to agree with our approach, but it’s important that we make the principles that underpin it clearer,” tweeted Brandon Borrman, from the Twitter Comms team.

The blog post makes it pretty clear that the company is reluctant to get involved, which will come as no surprise to those initially shocked that the President of the United States could retweet Britain First propaganda.

“Presently, direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter Rules,” the company wrote. This obviously covers the vast majority of politician’s potentially contentious tweets.

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“However, if a Tweet from a world leader does violate the Twitter Rules but there is a clear public interest value to keeping the Tweet on the service, we may place it behind a notice that provides context about the violation and allows people to click through should they wish to see the content.”

The clarification comes days after Twitter yanked off a Donald Trump campaign video from the president’s account after singer, Queen complained about unauthorized use of her band’s song “We Will Rock You.”

The entire song played in the background of the video, which showed clips of the president at rallies, was tweeted by Trump last Wednesday.

Queen complained to Twitter the same day, shortly after Trump posted the ad, The Independent reported. “Queen did not agree to the use of the song” and the band’s “music publishers are removing it,” a band representative told the newspaper.

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