Trump attacked Twitter after it restricted his post for 'glorifying violence' and said the company is unfairly targeting him
by Tom Porter- President Donald Trump launched a new attack on Twitter after the site tagged one of his messages with a warning it was "glorifying violence."
- Trump's post had called people protesting the death of George Floyd "thugs," adding: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts."
- "Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States," tweeted Trump early Friday.
- Trump on Thursday had signed an executive order targeting special legal protections enjoyed by social media companies.
- The order came after Twitter started fact-checking false claims Trump had made on the platform.
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President Donald Trump called for Congress to repeal laws designed to shield web companies from lawsuits, after Twitter tagged one of his tweets about protests in Minneapolis with a warning it was "glorifying violence."
"Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated!" tweeted Trump early Friday.
Section 230 refers to a law that shields social media sites from prosecution over content posted on their platform. Trump on Thursday signed an executive order calling for regulators to look into whether it should be revoked to avoid "online censorship."
Hours before Trump's latest attack on Twitter the site had for the first time labeled a tweet by Trump with a warning that it was "glorifying violence," shielding it from view and requiring users to click on it to to view it.
The president's post was about violence in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died Monday after a white police officer kneeled on his neck during an arrest.
He also threatened to send the military to respond to the protesters, and said: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts."
Trump's claim that the site has not acted to flag falsehoods by Chinese officials is false, as on Thursday the site flagged a conspiracy theory spread by a Chinese official about the US army being responsible for the coronavirus pandemic with a fact-check warning.
The dispute between Trump and Twitter has been building all week.
Twitter had been criticized for not taking action against the president for spreading an unsubstantiated murder conspiracy theory about MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, who has been critical of Trump.
But on Tuesday the site for the first time tagged a tweet by the president with a fact-check message, linking to articles debunking it. It has followed up by tagging dozens of other messages with similar warnings, including one by the Chinese official.
The president responded to Twitter's fact-check on his tweet by signing the executive order. Critics say the order is largely toothless, as it requires the approval of Congress for any action to be taken, and such action is unlikely.
Trump has long accused social media companies of being biased against conservatives, but has also spoken of the central importance of Twitter in his rise to the presidency.