Undeterred by Executive Order, Twitter Censors Trump's Tweet Claiming it Glorifies Violence

AP Photo/Evan Vucci
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President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order aimed at curbing protections for social media giants, in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, May 28, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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Just hours after President Trump signed an Executive Order designed to remove an “unprecedented liability shield” from social media companies (such as Twitter) engaging in political censorship, Twitter “hid” a tweet President Trump sent regarding the riots in Minneapolis claiming it “violated Twitter Rules about glorifying violence.”

The tweet was the second in a series Trump sent opposing the second night of violence in the city after protests over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis PD officer turned into large-scale riots.

The first tweet reads:

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…..

Here is what the hidden tweet says:

…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!

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Twitter users were able to click through the filter to read the actual tweet, but were unable to like or retweet.

Predictably, the coalition of Never Trumpers and the #Resistance claimed that Twitter, as a private company, can take whatever actions it wants against accounts they deem violate their Terms of Service, that Trump was inciting violence, and that it was “an appalling, inhumane statement by the President of the United States.”

No. What’s appalling is watching police officers run from their station after a violent mob attacked it, then watching the station go up in flames.

(Note: Those photos and videos are from Julio Rosas of Townhall, our sister site. Please pray for his safety as he brings us these reports.)

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What’s appalling and inhumane is the way a woman in a wheelchair was attacked and robbed simply because she stood her ground in front of a Target store rioters were about to loot.

What’s appalling and inhumane is leftist anarchists co-opting a protest and burning down affordable housing units and neighborhood businesses. Do they even think about the people who will now lose jobs?

What’s appalling is the number of people in this country who are okay with violent anarchists attempting a coup, essentially, but who think it’s terrible said violent thugs to be shot.

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Twitter’s actions also raise some interesting legal questions regarding not only election interference, but campaign finance. Should their actions be considered an in-kind donation to the Biden campaign? Or should they be held to a variation of the “equal time” doctrine, where they aren’t permitted to delete, hide, or otherwise obfuscate what a candidate is saying?

Of course tweets promising violence against Trump, against police officers in general, or publicizing this weekend’s Black Lives Matter “protests” haven’t been hidden; presumably they’re not glorifying violence.

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