The first American social media presidency came to something of an end last month, not when the votes rolled in but when Twitter flagged six of President Trump’s tweets in less than 24 hours.
To view Trump’s pronouncements — most of them vociferous claims that he’d won the election he has since certifiably lost — users had to click past a warning that each tweet’s content “might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”
It was a dramatic departure for the 45th president’s favorite platform, where for almost a decade he’s honed his persona as a trash-talking businessman, spewed racist conspiracies, and incited violence largely without interference. But this year, amid rampant coronavirus misinformation and baseless charges of election fraud, Twitter finally cracked down on one of its biggest accounts, with 88 million followers, though the warnings haven’t really stopped @RealDonaldTrump’s lies from circulating.