BREAKING NEWS: Twitter will slap WARNING LABELS on 'abusive' Trump tweets and limit how many people see them in new policy rolled out just one day after president accused platform of censoring him By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor For Dailymail.com Published: 18:10 BST, 27 June 2019 | Updated: 18:10 BST, 27 June 2019 Viewcomments 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 global debate about any topic he chooses or start a news cycle to distract the media from an existing one that he finds unfavorable. Some of his messages have rankled liberals who see attacks on media outlets and his political opponents as beyond the pale and unbecoming for a president. Twitter released a graphic on Thursday showing what a warning label would look like. It consists of a message reading: 'The Twitter Rules about abusive behavior apply to this Tweet. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain available.' Users won't be able to see or read it until they click on the word 'View.' In a Fox Business Network interview on Wednesday, host Maria Bartiromo asked the president if he was concerned that Silicon Valley titans were 'censoring conservatives' in advance of the 2020 election. 'Twitter is just terrible what they do,' he replied. 'They don't let you get the word [out]. I've had so many people come to me: "Sir, I can't join you on Twitter." I see what's happening, 100 per cent.' 'These people are all Democrats. It's totally biased toward Democrats,' Trump complained. 'If I announced tomorrow I am going to become a nice liberal Democrat, I would pick up 5 times more followers.' Twitter's announcement didn't mention the president by name and said it's unclear when it will single out its first tweet for the new form of censorship. Its stated rules ban tweets that fall into a number of subjective categories including 'the glorification of violence' and 'targeted harassment.' They also prohibit tweets that 'promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people' on the basis of their 'race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.' Share or comment on this article: All rights reserved for this news site dailymail and under his responsibility