3 min readNew DelhiMay 29, 2020 02:14 PM IST
First published on: May 29, 2020 at 02:14 PM IST
President Donald Trump listens during a briefing about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Monday, April 6, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo: Alex Brandon)
Twitter has flagged one of US President Donald Trump’s tweets for “violating its rules about glorifying violence”. This comes days after the micro-blogging site warned that a tweet by the President could contain misinformation and added a fact-check option for users.
Trump’s tweet on the violence in Minneapolis was hidden for users Friday with a note from Twitter: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.” Twitter, however, restricted other users from liking, commenting or retweeting the tweet except for a quoted retweet.
It was referring to the second of two tweets in a thread by Trump that read, “I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right…..
“….These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!” Trump said.
On Wednesday, for the first time, Twitter added a fact-check warning to tweets by the President in which he called mail-in ballots “fraudulent” and predicted that “mail boxes will be robbed”.
In a message posted under the tweets, Twitter said “Get the facts about mail-in ballots”, which guided users to a page with fact checks on the claims.
Twitter’s action did not go down well with the President, who Thursday signed an executive order and later said he planned on introducing a legislation to regulate social media companies.
“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,” he said Wednesday, without naming Twitter. “Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country,” he added.
President Donald Trump listens during a briefing about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Monday, April 6, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo: Alex Brandon)
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