Once he becomes an ex-president on 12:01 p.m. on January 20, 2021, Donald Trump will lose a special status Twitter gives to public officials whose tweets are deemed to be of “public interest,” meaning that his account can be suspended or terminated like any other user, reports Reuters.
Trump’s tweets on his personal account were deemed to be official statements by the Department of Justice, making them subject to the Presidential Records Act. Twitter also labeled Trump’s personal account as “public interest,” meaning some tweets by Trump that would have been deleted under Twitter’s terms of service remain posted.
“This policy framework applies to current world leaders and candidates for office, and not private citizens when they no longer hold these positions,” a Twitter spokesman said in a statement.
Trump has exploited this privilege to promote invalid conspiracy theories and falsehoods on everything from the coronavirus to election results. A multitude of Trump’s tweets since the election have been tagged by Twitter as containing false or misleading information about election results and voting.
However, once Trump leaves office, he loses those protections, leaving him subject to account review and suspension. “[F]ormer candidates for office or former officials continue to be covered by our third-party fact-checking programme.”