Twitter censors Donald Trump's 'violent' tweet amid executive order

Twitter has censored one of President Donald Trump. Photo / AP

The feud between Donald Trump and Twitter has been turned up a notch after the social media platform censored one of his tweets, warning users it "glorifies violence".

The censorship was added to a post he made about George Floyd supporters who have been protesting the death of a black man at the hands of a white police officer.

Dozens of businesses have been looted, multiple blazes are burning, cars have been torched and the streets remain filled with hundreds, if not thousands of people.

Twitter has censored one of Donald Trump's tweets. Photo / Twitter

"These THUGS are dishonouring 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," Trump wrote.

"Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"

But Twitter responded: "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence," its message reads. "However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."

It is the first time such a warning has been applied to the President's tweets.

The censorship also means people can't reply or retweet the post.

Twitter said in its official feed: "We have placed a public interest notice on this Tweet from Donald Trump.

"This 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.

"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.

"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 comes after Trump escalated his war on social media companies, signing an executive order challenging the liability protections that have served as a bedrock for unfettered speech on the internet.

Still, the move appears to be more about politics than substance, as the president aims to rally supporters after he lashed out at Twitter for applying fact checks to two of his tweets.

Trump said the fact checks were "editorial decisions" by Twitter and amounted to political activism. He said it should cost those companies their protection from lawsuits for what is posted on their platforms.

Trump, who personally relies heavily on Twitter to verbally flog his foes, has long accused the tech giants in liberal-leaning Silicon Valley of targeting conservatives by fact-checking them or removing their posts.

"We're fed up with it," Trump said, claiming the order would uphold freedom of speech.

It directs executive branch agencies to ask independent rule-making agencies including the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to study whether they can place new regulations on the companies — though experts express doubts much can be done without an act of Congress.

Companies like Twitter and Facebook are granted liability protection under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act because they are treated as "platforms," rather than "publishers," which can face lawsuits over content.

A similar executive order was previously considered by the administration but shelved over concerns it couldn't pass legal muster and that it violated conservative principles on deregulation and free speech.

"They've had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens or large public audiences," Trump said of social media companies as he prepared to sign the order. "There is no precedent in American history for so small a number of corporations to control so large a sphere of human interaction."

Trump and his campaign reacted after Twitter added a warning phrase to two Trump tweets that called mail-in ballots "fraudulent" and predicted, "mailboxes will be robbed." Under the tweets, there's now a link reading "Get the facts about mail-in ballots" that guides users to a page with fact checks and news stories about Trump's unsubstantiated claims.

....happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020

Trump accused Twitter of interfering in the 2020 presidential election" and declared "as president, I will not allow this to happen." His campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said Twitter's "clear political bias" had led the campaign to pull "all our advertising from Twitter months ago." In fact, Twitter has banned political advertising since last November.

.@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

Late Wednesday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted, "We'll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally."

Dorsey added: "This does not make us an 'arbiter of truth.' Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves."

On the other hand, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Fox News his platform has "a different policy, I think, than Twitter on this."

"I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online," he said.

The president's critics, meanwhile, scolded the platforms for allowing him to put forth false or misleading information that could confuse voters.

"Donald Trump's order is plainly illegal," said Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat and advocate for internet freedoms. He is "desperately trying to steal for himself the power of the courts and Congress. … All for the ability to spread unfiltered lies."

Trump's proposal has multiple, serious legal problems and is unlikely to survive a challenge, according to Matt Schruers, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, a Washington-based organization that represents computer and internet companies.

It would also seem to be an assault on the same online freedom that enabled social media platforms to flourish in the first place — and made them such an effective microphone for Trump and other politicians.

"The irony that is lost here is that if these protections were to go away social media services would be far more aggressive in moderating content and terminating accounts," Schruers said. "Our vibrant public sphere of discussion would devolve into nothing more than pre approved soundbites."

Twitter has censored one of President Donald Trump. Photo / AP

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was "outrageous" that while Twitter had put a fact-check tag on Trump's tweets asserting massive mail-in election fraud, it had not removed his tweets suggesting without evidence that a TV news host had murdered an aide years ago.

"Their business model is to make money at the expense of the truth and the facts that they know," she said of social media giants, also mentioning Facebook. She said their goal is to avoid taxes "and they don't want to be regulated, so they pander to the White House."

The president and fellow conservatives have been claiming, for years, that Silicon Valley tech companies are biased against them. But there is no evidence for this — and while the executives and many employees of Twitter, Facebook and Google may lean liberal, the companies have stressed they have no business interest in favoring on political party over the other.

The trouble began in 2016, two years after Facebook launched a section called "trending," using human editors to curate popular news stories. Zuckerberg met with prominent right-wing leaders at the time in an attempt at damage control, and in 2018, Facebook shut down the "trending" section.

In August 2018, Trump accused Google of biased searches and warned the company to "be careful." Google pushed back sharply, saying Trump's claim simply wasn't so, and experts suggested his comments showed a misunderstanding of how search engines work.

Last year, Trump again blasted social media companies after Facebook banned a slew of extremist figures including conspiracy peddler Alex Jones from its site and from Instagram.

Meanwhile, the companies are gearing up to combat misinformation around the November elections. Twitter and Facebook have begun rolling out dozens of new rules to avoid a repeat of the false postings about the candidates and the voting process that marred the 2016 election.

- additional reporting AP