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May 5, 2024

Trump’s next tweet could get a warning label

Twitter Donald Trump

J. David Ake / AP

President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed is photographed on an Apple iPad in New York, Thursday, June 27, 2019.

SAN FRANCISCO — President Donald Trump's next tweet might come with a warning label.

Starting Thursday, tweets that Twitter deems in the public interest, but which violate the service's rules, will be obscured by a warning explaining the violation. Users will have to tap through the warning to see the underlying message.

The new Twitter policy will apply to other political leaders and candidates as well. Twitter effectively exempts such public figures from many of its normal rules, considering their messages significant enough to warrant special treatment.

The company outlined its reasoning in 2018 after some Twitter users questioned why presidential tweets that threatened war or spread hatred didn't get Trump banned from the service.

Twitter says the policy applies to major political figures with more than 100,000 followers.