Following the signing of an Executive order directly targeting Twitter’s censorship of President Trump’s posts earlier this week, the company has once again censored a tweet Trump posted, claiming that it “violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence”.
The tweet in question was a response to a third day of looting in Minneapolis.
Trump wrote: “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!”
In a further statement, Twitter claimed that the 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.”
The company added, “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.”
According to Twitter, “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.”
It is clear that Twitter’s action is a tit-for-tat response to Trump’s Executive order, as it will likely only increase scrutiny of the tweet content itself anyway.
The company even tweeted about the censoring of the tweet:
According to reports, the decision to place a “public interest notice” on Trump’s tweet was “made by teams within Twitter and CEO Jack Dorsey was informed of the plan before the tweet was labeled.”
Trump had earlier tweeted a ‘test’ post to see if the company would again censor him:
MAIL-IN VOTING WILL LEAD TO MASSIVE FRAUD AND ABUSE. IT WILL ALSO LEAD TO THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY. WE CAN NEVER LET THIS TRAGEDY BEFALL OUR NATION. BIG MAIL-IN VICTORY IN TEXAS COURT TODAY. CONGRATS!!!
There was no action taken by Twitter, a confusing situation given that it censored the exact same words in Trump’s post earlier this week, redirecting people away from it and to a barrage of ultra-leftist opinion.
The notion that Twitter takes action against glorifying violence across the board is laughable, given that the company allows literal death threats against Trump to remain on its platform every day.
“Twitter, do your thing” has become a dog whistle being used by digital hate mobs to cyberbully, doxx and harass minors. Families are being exposed to violent threats and nothing is being done to stop it.
Just yesterday, Twitter allowed huge amounts of verified users to spread fake pictures purporting to show Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin wearing a “Make Whites Great Again” hat.
Rand Paul: Elon Musk Will Go Down As A Historic Champion For Free Speech
“Somewhere along the way something happened and people began to think that only certain forms of speech were acceptable.”
Published
3 weeks ago
on
18 May, 2023
Steve Watson
Screenshot
Senator Rand Paul praised Elon Musk Wednesday for standing up for free speech, predicting that the Twitter owner will be recorded as a key figure in history in the fight against censorship.
Referring to Musk’s compelling take down of a CNBC hack earlier this week, Paul noted “Thank God for someone who can still speak their mind and won’t take some guff off a journalist who tells him he can’t speak his mind.”
“Somewhere along the way something happened and people began to think that only certain forms of speech were acceptable,” The Senator urged.
“Then along came Elon Musk,” Paul continued, adding “The country, the Bill of Rights frankly, all of us, are going to be very thankful that a guy with a lot of money bought a social media entity and allowed us to see the government colluding to limit speech.”
“People need to get this right. Private companies can decide what they want to air, newspapers can, television shows can. But what we cannot allow to happen is the government to collude with private business and use them basically as their extension and their arm of censor,” Paul emphasised.
He added that “Elon Musk exposed this only because he had 44 billion dollars to buy a company and expose their inner workings off collusion with government.”
Watch:
Rand Paul:
"Then along came Elon Musk. The country, the Bill of Rights frankly, all of us, are going to be very thankful that a guy with a lot of money bought a social media entity and allowed us to see the government colluding to limit speech."pic.twitter.com/8DFeUtTqAL
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 18, 2023