Donald Trump is top result when you search ‘loser’ on Twitter

Departing US president is also top result for terms ‘racist’ and ‘liar’

Anthony Cuthbertson
Monday 09 November 2020 16:04 GMT
Comments
Tweets from outgoing US President Donald Trump masked with warnings imposed by Twitter stating that they may be incorrect, 5 November, 2020
Tweets from outgoing US President Donald Trump masked with warnings imposed by Twitter stating that they may be incorrect, 5 November, 2020 (AFP via Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Searching for the term ‘loser’ on Twitter delivers US President Donald Trump’s account as the top result.

The search result was first spotted by Twitter users on Saturday after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential elections, beating the incumbent in both the electoral college and popular vote by a substantial margin.

Twitter noted that its search results are not selected or curated by members of staff. 

Instead, an algorithm serves results based on certain terms being frequently associated with an account.

“If an account is mentioned often alongside certain terms, they can become algorithmically surfaced together as an association,” Twitter said in a statement.

“These associations are temporal and ever changing based on how people tweet.”

The outgoing US president also comes top when searching for ‘racist’ and ‘liar’ on the platform.

Mr Trump has frequently used Twitter in the past to label rivals and perceived enemies as “haters and losers”.

More than a dozen of his tweets have been flagged for flouting Twitter’s rules in the days following the election, mostly for misleading claims about the electoral process and unsubstantiated claims about widespread voter fraud.

Several leading Democrats called on Twitter to ban Mr Trump for spreading “pure disinformation”, with one congressman describing him as a “threat to democracy”.

As the serving US president, Twitter gives Mr Trump special treatment and is yet to take any serious action against his account, such as a suspension or ban.

Under the company’s public interest rules, “current or potential members of a local, state, national, or supra-national governmental or legislative body” are protected in the interest of public discourse.

Mr Trump’s account will no longer fall under these guidelines when he leaves office in January, meaning he will be suspended or banned if he continues to break the rules.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in