The war between Donald Trump and and Twitter was escalated early this morning when, for the first time, Twitter took the step of hiding a Trump tweet behind a message pointing out that his words were “glorifying violence.”
Twitter added this:
Twitter’s communications department released a statement that read:
We have placed a public interest notice on this Tweet from @realdonaldtrump.
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.
We’ve taken action in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts, but have kept the Tweet on Twitter because it is important that the public still be able to see the Tweet given its relevance to ongoing matters of public importance.
As is standard with this notice, engagements with the Tweet will be limited. People will be able to Retweet with Comment, but will not be able to Like, Reply or Retweet it.
The New York Times points out:
The company’s decision comes a day after Mr. Trump signed an executive order that seeks to limit the legal protections that shield social media companies from liability for the content posted on their platforms. The president had fulminated over Twitter’s decision earlier this week to add fact-checking labels for the first time to two of his tweets. In response, he accused Twitter of stifling speech and said that he would end the interference.
One of the people Trump took aim at in his tweet was the mayor of Minneapolis. Here he is reacting to the tweet.
It wasn’t Trump who originally said the “shooting starts” phrase.
Later Friday morning the official White House Twitter account quoted Trump’s tweet. It was also flagged a short time later.
This tweet from Trump is even getting chastised from an unlikely source, the Oath Keepers. The group is described as an “anti-government American far-right organization associated with the militia movement.” Here’s what they wrote on Twitter.
This is a disaster. President Trump needs to retract that statement ASAP, stating that he misspoke & did not mean to say that National Guard should shoot people for stealing.
