Twitter has announced a change in its rules and it could be bad news for one of its biggest fans, Donald Trump.

The social media platform says it will label tweets from politicians and government officials who break its rules against bullying and abuse. It will apply to those with more than 100,000 followers.

Users will have to click through the warning to read the tweet.

Covered by the ban is threatening a person or group with violence, engaging in "targeted harassment of someone" or inciting others to do so, such as wishing for a person to be hurt.

Also prohibited is hate speech against a group based on categories such as race, ethnicity or gender and threatening or promoting terrorism.


The decision to label a tweet will be made by members of Twitter's trust and safety, legal and public policy teams, as well as employees in the regions where the tweets originate.

Image: Mr Trump is a prolific user of Twitter

Once a tweet has a notice placed on it, it will not appear in the site's "safe search" mode, notifications tab, the explore section and other places tweets are promoted or highlighted.

While the policy will not apply to past tweets, there are many of the US president's tweets that might have been labelled under the rules.

Among them was a recent attack on Iran, threatening the country with "great and overwhelming force", adding that "in some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration".

He has also called people and groups "dishonest", "deceitful", a "dog", a "low life", "cryin' Chuck", "crooked Hillary" and other names.

He has re-tweeted anti-Muslim videos of dubious origin and a video of himself beating up a man with a CNN logo in place of his head.

But the president often complains that social media platforms are biased against him.

Sky News technology correspondent Rowland Manthorpe said Twitter had found itself in a "tricky position when it comes to political figures".

He added: "On one hand, if they break the rules, then they should be banned.

"On the other hand, how do you ban the president of the United States?

"That's hardly a good thing for free, democratic debate.

"YouTube encountered the same problem recently when Tommy Robinson stood for election as an MEP.

"After years of wrestling with this question, this is Twitter's latest attempt at an answer - it's not enough for lots of people, but I'd expect it to cause plenty of controversy all the same."