Twitter limited the reach of a second tweet from President Donald Trump this morning, as the White House and its allies sought to escalate their feud with the social media company.
On Friday, Trump known as individuals protesting the demise of George Floyd in Minnesota “thugs.” The president continued, “Any issue and we’ll assume management, however, when the looting begins, the taking pictures begins.” Shortly after the message was posted, Twitter decided that it violated guidelines involving the glorification of violence and positioned a discover on the tweet. In doing so, the tweet is hidden from Trump’s timeline however is accessible as soon as a consumer clicks a “view” button. Likes, retweets, and replies are all disabled from the tweet in an effort to restrict its attain.
The tweet Twitter labeled was the second in a thread of posts from the president concentrating on the protests in Minnesota. A number of hours after the tweets have been posted, the White Home’s personal Twitter account quote-tweeted the primary in Trump’s thread and reposted the identical message that the platform initially flagged on the president’s account. The White Home’s quote-tweet was labeled for a similar rule violation.
Twitter’s decision to place a “public interest notice” on the tweet was “made by teams within Twitter and CEO Jack Dorsey was informed of the plan before the tweet was labeled,” tweeted Ina Fried from Axios. In a subsequent tweet, Twitter said that “this tweet violates our policies regarding the glorification of violence based on the historical context of the last line, its connection to violence, and the risk it could inspire similar actions today.”
Twitter is referring to the fact that Trump’s “looting” comment is a quote from former Miami Police Chief Walter Headley, in charge during the Miami’s 1967 race riots and known for his “stop and frisk” tactics. During the riots, he used the same phrase: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” He’s also known for saying: “We don’t mind being accused of police brutality. They haven’t seen anything yet.”
As Chris Geidner from the Justice Collaborative noted, Trump’s tweet also appears to be inaccurate. The Minnesota National Guard tweeted that it had already “activated more than 500 soldiers to St. Paul, Minneapolis and surrounding communities… to protect life, preserve property and the right to peacefully demonstrate.”
Last year, Twitter said that it would label but not delete tweets from political leaders, as it was in the “public interest” to leave them up. The company also said that it would downrank such tweets so that they wouldn’t surface easily during searches.
Where Twitter has taken action with recent Trump tweets, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said it’s wrong for companies to become the “arbiter of truth.” As it stands, Trump’s “looting” message is also up on his Facebook account with no label or warning. Trump has long maintained that social media networks have a bias against him and conservative views, so Twitter’s latest action will no doubt greatly escalate tensions between them.
