United States President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office before signing an executive order related to social media regulation on May 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump’s executive order could lead to attempts to punish companies like Twitter and Google for trying to point out factual inconsistencies in social media posts by politicians.
Doug Mills | Pool | fake pictures
Twitter on Tuesday once again affixed a tag to one of President Donald Trump’s tweets, alleging that it violated the platform’s policies against abusive behavior.
Trump’s tweet said those trying to create an “Autonomous Zone” in Washington, DC, “will face serious force.” Twitter claims the tweet violates its rules because it includes a “threat of harm against an identifiable group.”
The tweet came after a group of protesters tried unsuccessfully on Monday to tear down a statute of former President Andrew Jackson near the White House. Protesters later tried to claim an area near Black Lives Matter Plaza as an “Autonomous Black House Zone,” The Washington Post reported, before police removed them.
Protesters in Seattle began occupying an autonomous zone in the city earlier this month when the police department removed officers from a local compound.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany responded on Twitter: “Let’s be clear about what just happened. Twitter called it” abusive behavior “for the President of the United States to say he will enforce the law. Twitter says it is “abusive” to prevent protesters from taking over the territory by force to establish a lawless zone in our capital. “
Recently, Twitter has been more actively enforcing its content policies against the President. Those policies include a special separation that allows Twitter to mark tweets from world leaders who violate its standards while leaving tweets intact so they can be seen by the public.
Twitter generally deletes similar tweets if they are posted by other users. The company has said it believes messages from world leaders are in the public interest, so it places a warning that hides the message from users until they click.
Twitter affixed a fact check tag to two of Trump’s tweets about mail ballots for the first time last month. Soon after, Twitter placed a warning tag on another tweet that said it violated its policies on glorifying violence.
Trump lashed out at Twitter for the initial fact-check tag, introducing an executive order a couple of days later that would seek to weaken the shield of responsibility that protects Twitter and other platforms from legal liability for its users’ posts. Although the executive order has very limited power without legislative changes, the move was widely seen as retaliation for Twitter’s actions in Trump’s tweets.
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LOOK: Seattle protesters established an ‘autonomous zone’: this is how it is
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