Twitter will begin posting notices on tweets from politicians that break the platform's rules but are in the public's interest, the company announced Thursday.
For years, Twitter has been grappling with how to handle tweets from public officials — most notably President Donald Trump — that violate its community standards.
"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," Twitter said in a statement.
Under the new policy, a violation notice will be overlayed on the tweet and require the reader to click past the message to access the tweet. The tweet also will not be promoted through the platform's algorithm.
Twitter ($TWTR) said the notices will be applied only to the "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."
"By nature of their positions these leaders have outsized influence and sometimes say things that could be considered controversial or invite debate and discussion," the company's statement added. "A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable."
Violations notices will be only be applied to verified accounts of government officials and political candidates with over 100,000 followers.
The disclaimers over the tweet will read: "The Twitter Rules about abusive behavior apply to this Tweet. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain available."
Twitter's community standards prohibit posts deemed to be harassment, bullying, or that threaten physical violence. Several of Trump's tweets, such as the video he posted in 2017 of a WWE wrestling match that depicted him beating a man with a CNN logo on his face, have tested the limits of these policies.
Multiple other tweets from the president that have used degrading epithets to attack political opponents have also been potential violations. Twitter first publicly floated the idea of a new notice policy earlier this year.
The company is discussing "how can we put some context around [a tweet], so people are aware that that content is actually a violation of our rules, and it is serving a particular purpose in remaining on our platform," Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's head of legal, public policy & trust, and safety, said at a Washington Post Live event in March.
