Twitter Adds Warning Label on New Trump Tweet For ‘Threat of Harm’ Against D.C. Protesters

KJ EdelmanJun 23rd, 2020, 3:31 pm
 

Nicholas Kamm/ AFP/Getty Images

Twitter has added a warning label on a tweet of President Donald Trump’s that warned Washington D.C. protesters about creating an “autonomous zone,” in reference to Seattle protesters who taking over several blocks in protest. Twitter said his tweet violated rules of “abusive behavior, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group.”

Trump’s tweet said, “There will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone’ in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!” The label placed above the tweets now reads, “This tweet violated the Twitter Rules about abusive behavior. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

The idea of misinformation labels on tweets from the president gained traction in May 2019. Over the last month, several Trump tweets have received warnings from the platform.

On May 26, Twitter applied labels on two Trump tweets about mail-in voting, which promoted baseless and false claims about the risk of fraud. By clicking on the warning symbol, Twitter users were routed to a information page to a fact-check that read: “Trump makes unsubstantiated claim that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud.”

Three days later, the platform hid a Trump tweet that called protesters “thugs” and said “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter said Trump’s words “glorified violence.”

After both warnings, Trump called out Twitter on their own platform in a series of tweets. On May 26, the president accused Twitter of interfering with the 2020 election and then tried to claim that Twitter, a private company, not the U.S. government, was “completely stifling FREE SPEECH.”

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