By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor For Dailymail.com
Published: 18:10 BST, 27 June 2019 | Updated: 18:10 BST, 27 June 2019
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Twitter has begun placing virtual warning labels on politicians' messages that it would ban as offensive if the identity of their authors didn't automatically make them matters of public interest.
The move, announced Thursday, came barely 24 hours after President Donald Trump accused the social media platform's leaders of censoring him in a bid to limit the circulation of his ideas.
Twitter's 'safety' team wrote in a blog post that when office-holders or candidates posted material that 'violated our rules' in the past, it often chose to ignore the problem in the interest of poliical free speech.
But now in some cases it will force users to click on a disclaimer before viewing such material, and purposely depress its ability to go viral.
The move, the company said, would allow it to 'strike the right balance between enabling free expression, fostering accountability, and reducing the potential harm' some tweets can cause.
Trump has 61.4 million followers on Twitter, giving him a massive opening to change the
