Last week, Twitter hid US President Donald Trump’s tweet over threatening Minnesota protestors with military action. The social network has taken similar action to Rep. Matt Gaetz’s tweet that classified “Antifa as terrorists” and asked to “hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East”
Several politicians and policy advocates asked the company to take the tweet down immediately. Before Twitter marked the tweet, it was retweeted over 12,000 times. Just like Trump’s tweet, this tweet hasn’t been removed from the platform because of its newsworthiness.
In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson said the tweet was in violation of the company’s glorification of violence policy.
After Twitter marked his tweet, Gaetz said “their warning is my badge of honor.”
Their warning is my badge of honor.
Antifa is a terrorist organization, encouraging riots that hurt Americans.
Our government should hunt them down. Twitter should stop enabling them.
I’ll keep saying it. https://t.co/Nw3HFec53C
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) June 2, 2020
Americans are holding protests all over the country after an African-American man, George Floyd, was killed by a former Minnesota police officer. Several political leaders, including Trump, have billed some protestors as Antifa (anti-fascist movement) terrorists.
In the past few weeks, Twitter has been proactive in marking tweets that spread misinformation or glorify violence. Last week, the company embedded fact-checking links to some of Trump’s tweets. In response, Trump signed an executive order that removes a safe harbor for social media companies and holds them liable for content hosted on their platforms.
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