Washington, March 28: Twitter is considering to label tweets that violate its rules but should remain on the platform because they’re in the public interest.
In an interview with The Washington Post Thursday, Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s Head of Legal, Policy and Trust, said Twitter is working on how to label tweets that violate the company’s abuse terms.
Twitter is facing the flak for allowing US President Donald Trump’s tweets that often violate its rules. “One of the things we’re working really closely on with our product and engineering folks is, ‘How can we label that?'” Gadde was quoted as saying, without naming the US President.
“How can we put some context around it so people are aware that that content is actually a violation of our rules and is serving a particular purpose in remaining on the platform,” she said.
A study earlier this week found that people in the US are tweeting much more about embarrassment since Trump took office. “Beyond embarrassment, there is a slight positive correlation between Trump and the words disgust, shame and anger,” said study co-author Dar Meshi, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University in the US.
“This means when people tweet these words, there’s a higher probability that they are tweeting about Trump,” Meshi said. The micro-blogging platform has time and again clarified that it will not block world leaders from tweeting. Although it didn’t directly name Trump, in a blog post called “World Leaders on Twitter”, the company said last year there has been a lot of discussion about political figures and world leaders on the platform.
“Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate,” the company said.
“It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions,” it remarked