Donald Trump will stop enjoying special Twitter privileges if he loses the US election, Bloomberg cited the social media giant as saying.
This stipulates that POTUS will fall into the category of "former world leader", meaning he will not be subject to the same protection that his Twitter account currently receives.
The technology news website The Verge, in turn, quoted a Twitter spokesperson as saying that the social network's "approach to world leaders, candidates, and public officials is based on the principle that people should be able to choose to see what their leaders are saying with clear context", which means that Twitter "may apply warnings and labels, and limit engagement to certain tweets".
"This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions", the spokesperson added.
According to The Verge, the special Twitter privileges pertaining to Trump's personal account may run out on 20 January 2021, when a possible new president takes office.
As for "position-specific accounts like @WhiteHouse, @POTUS, and @FLOTUS", they will be transferred to a potential new US administration, The Verge reported.
It seems, however, that Twitter's soft censorship began last Wednesday morning, when Trump took to the social media platform to express his frustration over alleged discrepancies which saw his early lead in key battleground states evaporate in favour of Democratic rival Joe Biden.
We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
At the time, Twitter censored a whole array of tweets by the president, putting up a disclaimer reading "Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process" next to the content the company found objectionable. Users wishing to read the president's tweets need to click "View" to access them.
Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism about social media platforms, especially Twitter and Facebook, accusing them of shading "prominent Republicans" and of "Radical Left bias". Last month, the Media Research Centre, a Virginia-based content analysis group, reported it had found that Trump was censored on Facebook or Twitter 65 times over the past year and a half, while Biden has faced zero instances of censorship to his social media pages.
While Biden has already declared himself president-elect, Trump continues to assert that the race is not yet over. POTUS has consistently claimed that the election was fraudulent and promised that his administration would assert its claim to victory in US courts.
