Twitter’s application of its own rules on abusive tweets and hate speech is notoriously arbitrary. The odds of someone being removed, whether they’re actually a Russian spambot or the grand wizard of the KKK, often seem about equal to those of winning the lottery. While being bitten by a shark. The biggest serial abusers sometimes go down simply because so many people raise their hands and point, but when it comes to the biggest regular violator of Twitter’s supposed rules … Twitter is making some special rules.
As the Washington Post reports, Twitter is looking at ways to handle tweets that break the rules for being racist, encouraging violence, and spreading racism—in other words, “executive time” — without actually doing anything to stop the display of racism, hate, and violence. Instead of doing what literally millions have requested and blocking Donald Trump’s Twitter account for repeated violations of its own posted rules, Twitter is instead looking for ways that it can “annotate” those tweets.
Twitter’s argument is that Trump’s tweets can’t be deleted because they are “inherently newsworthy” and “in the public interest.” Because the public absolutely needs a route by which Trump can inject more hate and division into each day.
However, though it will not follow the rules it lays down and—occasionally—employs to block users who aren’t driving huge business with their hate speech, Twitter will append future tweets that violate the standards with an unspecified note. Probably one informing everyone that the content is newsworthy and in the public interest. Or maybe it will be some kind of summary of Twitter’s supposed rules. Trump likes summaries.
Exactly how Twitter is going to be any more proactive about handing out these “You’ve been bad” annotations isn’t made clear. What is clear is that Twitter is creating a two-tiered system. Ordinary users found in violation of the rules get banned. Big names who spread lies, threats, and hate … get advertised.