Hey look, it's a day ending in 'y'! Time for Twitter to flag another lying Trump tweet.
Donald Trump has once again incurred the incredibly mild wrath of Twitter.
Almost six hours after the President of the United States fired off a lie-filled tweet about the dangers of "Mail Drop Boxes" for election ballots, the Twitter Safety team took notice. Rather than remove the tweet, Twitter will allow it to stand with some restrictions and a notice about how it violates the site's policies.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
A follow-up tweet from Twitter Safety notes that the original tweet will be allowed to live on, just with limited engagements. That means no likes, no replies, and re-tweets without comment. It won't be deleted because most Trump tweets are considered relevant "to ongoing public conversation" by definition.
So now, anyone who looks at the newly flagged tweet will see a message sitting between it and the president's account info:
"This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible," the message reads, daring us not to laugh ruefully.
We're almost four years into this presidency and many have come to view Trump as a walking, talking, rage-filled manifestation of the "old man yells at cloud" meme. U.S. president or not, maybe it's time to re-think the old public interest rules. Eh, Twitter?
The company has taken an increasingly firm stance on Trump's social media behavior, which is to say multiple tweets emanating from the president's account have been flagged, but not removed, since May 2020. The latest flag marks the second time in recent months that Trump's dishonest portrayal of U.S. elections specifically has drawn Twitter's (again, incredibly mild) wrath.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
