Twitter signals Trump tweets will stay, even if they break rules

Twitter Inc. defended its recent decision to label some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tweets but also said world leaders’ comments on the social media service will stay up, even if they break the company’s rules.

Twitter has been heavily criticized by Trump and other conservative politicians after it added labels to tweets of his on May 26 that it said violated the company’s misinformation policy. Three days later, Twitter slapped a rule-violation notice on another post by Trump warning protesters in Minnesota that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

“We are NOT attempting to address all misinformation,” the company’s @twittersafety account wrote on Tuesday. “Instead, we prioritize based on the highest potential for harm, focusing on manipulated media, civic integrity, and Covid-19. Likelihood, severity and type of potential harm — along with reach and scale — factor into this.”

Still, the company has resisted other calls to drop Trump from its service entirely. “Its important people can read and speak about what world leaders say, even if they violate our rules,” Twitter wrote on Tuesday.

The San Francisco-based company said it “shouldn’t determine the truthfulness of tweets,” but tries to “provide context to help people make up their own minds in cases where the substance of a Tweet is disputed.”

“Hence, our focus is on providing context, not fact-checking,” it added.