Jack Dorsey is committed to making Twitter a better place for everyone, even if it means effectively killing Twitter:
We‘ll now clearly label any tweets which violate our terms of service but decide to keep up due to public interest. https://t.co/0jxS7GrARy
— jack ??? (@jack) June 27, 2019
Twitter to put notice on politician tweets that break its rules https://t.co/fVkkrAzTiP pic.twitter.com/RhvcnM7IrU
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) June 27, 2019
More from Twitter’s blog:
Our highest priority is to protect the health of the public conversation on Twitter, and an important part of that is ensuring our rules and how we enforce them are easy to understand. In the past, we’ve allowed certain Tweets that violated our rules to remain on Twitter because they were in the public’s interest, but it wasn’t clear when and how we made those determinations. To fix that, we’re introducing a new notice that will provide additional clarity in these situations, and sharing more on when and why we’ll use it.
Serving the public conversation includes providing the ability for anyone to talk about what matters to them; this can be especially important when engaging with government officials and political figures. By nature of their positions these leaders have outsized influence and sometimes say things that could be considered controversial or invite debate and discussion. A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable.
With this in mind, 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. On the rare occasions when this happens, we’ll place a notice – a screen you have to click or tap through before you see the Tweet – 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.
Isn’t that thoughtful of them?
— Raoul Duke (@GonzoFinance) June 27, 2019
"Public interest". pic.twitter.com/ZPt4egau71
— Kevin Bullington (@MadmanSpeaks) June 27, 2019
.@jack Stalin and the Soviet Tweet Police are staying busy. https://t.co/kbN8CM9bCo
— SFK (@stephenkruiser) June 27, 2019
That may be what they’re going for … but when it inevitably backfires, they’ll only have themselves to blame.
I dont know why they do this…
Ppl will obviously see that it will be skewed and not applied fairly https://t.co/bMRAjsqU1q
— Bob Malak (@bob_malak) June 27, 2019
There’s that, and then there’s this:
Twitter basically putting a “parental advisory, explicit lyrics” sticker on Trump tweets, which just like that dumb sticker, should have the exact same effect. https://t.co/NPXB9vT2LV
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) June 27, 2019
Dorsey and Twitter aren’t mentioning Donald Trump by name, but is there honestly anyone who doesn’t think they had Trump in mind when they came up with this?
won't that make them MORE desired – and, more…viral? ie 'forbidden fruit' sort of thing?
— Gumpling (@Gumpling) June 27, 2019
It’s how you tell which Trump tweets are even cooler than the others.
— SurveyingSports (@SurveyingSports) June 27, 2019
The best part is going to be when Trump uses this as a badge of honor. https://t.co/VsBqQDwZEw
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) June 27, 2019
My exact reaction to the news.
This move by @twitter is equivalent to @jack making in-kind donations to #Trump2020.
— MIKE BRESLIN’S POINTLESS TWEETS (@mikebreslin815) June 27, 2019
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