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Twitter Inc. on Friday labeled a tweet of President Donald Trump’s as having “glorified violence,” just hours after he signed an executive order threatening to strip the company of protections against liability.
The offending tweet by Trump came in his reaction to the riots in Minneapolis. He employed a quote from a former Miami police chief who said, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Related:‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts’ — Trump threatens to call military into Minneapolis
The full tweet read: “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!”
What Twitter uses see when they click on President Trump’s tweet
When users click on the tweet, it now reads: “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.”
It’s the first tweet of Trump’s that is masked when users click on it.
Twitter said the move was “in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts.”
Trump has been battling the company over its reaction to tweets he’s made suggesting MSNBC host Joe Scarborough was responsible for the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis. Klausutis’ widower, T.J. Klausutis, asked Twitter to remove the tweets. The company has not removed the tweets but it added a “get the facts” tab to another of the president’s tweets over mail-in ballots.
Trump signed an executive order calling for the start of a regulatory process to clarify the scope of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act “to ensure social media companies who purport to provide users a forum for free and open speech, but nonetheless engage in deceptive or pretextual censorship, will not be allowed to entitled to immunity for such actions.”
The order also establishes a working group to develop model legislation that states could adopt.
Related:Trump executive order to punish social-media platforms is largely toothless, legal experts say
Twitter TWTR, -4.44% shares ended over 4% lower on Thursday, and Facebook FB, -1.60% also closed lower.
