Trump Will Lose His Special Twitter Protections in January

Donald Trump will be subject to the same Twitter rules as any other user when President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20; the social media company confirmed this week.

According to NBC News, Twitter places “public interest” notices on rule-breaking tweets from “world leaders,” but once Trump leaves office- this will no longer apply to him.

Such problematic tweets from political candidates and elected or government officials are usually covered by a warning, and Twitter takes actions to restrict the users’ reach. But the company stated this special treatment would not apply to former officeholders.

“This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions,” a spokesman for Twitter said in a statement.

Twitter has already added multiple warnings and labels to tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account on several occasions. Most recently, after Tuesday’s election, when the former reality TV star made unfounded allegations of voting fraud. The company hid one of his tweets behind a “public interest” label in May when he violated its policy against glorifying violence.

Trump will also be subjected to all of Facebook’s policies once Biden takes office in January as his posts would also no longer be exempt from review by Facebook’s third-party fact-checking partners.