From Vox:
The first American social media presidency came to something of an end last month [November 2020], 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. The warnings, however, haven’t really stopped @RealDonaldTrump’s lies from circulating.
Over four tumultuous years, Trump hasn’t just broken every rule of online engagement — he’s rewritten the playbook. Now every politician is forced to engage on social media, though few use their preferred platforms more skillfully. Barack Obama was the first sitting president on Twitter (and continues to have more followers on the platform), but Trump was the one to weaponize it....
Trump will soon be leaving Washington, but his tactics will influence GOP politicking in particular for years to come.
Update: On January 8, 2021, Twitter suspended Donald Trump’s Twitter account indefinitely.
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