Twitter Will Change Drastically For Trump If He Loses. Here's Why
President Trump's obsession with Twitter is no secret. For the past four years, he has tweeted without filter, and it has become the nation's new normal. Perhaps it shouldn't be that shocking to see a barrage of critical tweets from a man who, as Politico points out, garnered much of his fame as a reality star. And the president has been flagged several times on social media platforms for spreading what have been termed mistruths (via The New York Times).
However, what enrages his opponents only seems to further delight his constituents, and as GOP consultant Reed Galen explained to Politico at the beginning of Trump's presidency, "Almost anything he says is getting the desired reaction out of the people he is trying to get a rise out of. And it further divides the people who like him from those who don't — those who trust the media from those who don't. And what it really does, unfortunately, it obscures the important issues we should be focusing on."
If, however, Trump loses his re-election campaign to Biden, he may also lose his favorite social media soapbox (via Bloomberg).
If Trump becomes a private citizen, his Twitter account will lose protections
As a world leader, President Trump is afforded certain protections on Twitter which prevent his seemingly questionable tweets from being removed or his account from being suspended because, as Twitter policy defines it: "It may be in the public's interest to have access to certain Tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules." The tech giant further explains: "A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable."
Should Biden win the election, come January, Trump will resume his role as a private citizen and his days of tweeting with impunity could come to a screeching halt. Instead of tweets being labeled and flagged as they are now, USA Today explains that any posts that violate Twitter's policies including hate speech, advocating violence, and perpetuating dangerous falsehoods, would be completely removed, and multiple repeated violations could result in his account being permanently suspended.
As a regular citizen, Trump will be required to use a lot more discretion than he and his followers seem to prefer.