For the last couple of years, social media has been bombarded with irresponsible and outright offensive comments. Facebook, Google, and Twitter have been under tremendous pressure to outdo such activities. These internet behemoths have tried many ideas with little success. But now Twitter wants to take this a step further. It has decided to label tweets that are offensive and go against its posting rules. Twitter might even start labelling President Donald Trump’s tweets as well. The labelling will work on tweets of famous public figures. Mind you if a commoner does the same, they stand to lose their account, altogether. For now, Twitter may label Trump’s offensive Tweets, if it breaks rules. Besides, the Twitter CEO was himself caught in a controversy not so far back.
The micro-blogger site has exempted the world leaders from banning of accounts if it incites violence or leads to enmity in society. It said that the reason to do so was to keep the larger interest of public intact. However, the same rules change drastically for a non-celebrity figure. You and I can lose our Twitter accounts easily on a single Tweet that only hints towards violence.
In an interview with Washington Post, Twitters Chief of legal, policy, and trust and safety said “One of the things we’re working really closely on with our product and engineering folks is, ‘How can we label that?’ ” She also said, “How can we put some context around it so people are aware that that content is actually a violation of our rules and it is serving a particular purpose in remaining on the platform.”
Since Trump has been in power there have been several instances of offensive tweets that Twitter has ignored. Anyone else would have been banned for life. With this latest development, if it goes live, Twitter will try its best to show the world that it cares about its rules and regulations and will play a more responsible role.
