Twitter hides President Trump’s new tweet on Minneapolis protests for ‘glorifying violence’

Twitter added a new public interest note on President Donald Trump’s tweet from early Thursday morning, saying the president broke Twitter’s rules for “glorification of violence.”

What did Trump write?

• Trump wrote: “I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right.....

“....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!”

Twitter’s response:

• Twitter wrote: “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.”
• Twitter did not remove the tweet, though. The social media company said the tweet serves public interest.
• Twitter announced the decision in a tweet thread from its communication account.
• The brief note from Twitter is visible when you click Trump’s tweet on his timeline. You can see the note if you view the tweet directly.

What this means:

• According to The Verge, the tweet will be limited in its reach. but people can still retweet it with a comment.
• Direct retweets, replies and likes are not available for the tweet.

Response from the White House:

• On Friday morning, the White House’s official Twitter account shared the same language in a tweet, quoting the president.
• “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!”

Some more context:

• Twitter’s decision comes a day after President Trump signed an executive order aimed at social media companies, which came in response to Twitter fact-checking one of Trump’s tweets about mail-in-voting.