Twitter has taken the step of fully censoring a tweet by President Trump, which he made this morning regarding recent events in Washington. Before, the social media giant has placed warnings under his tweets, claiming misinformation (in some cases where none existed).
What did Trump say this time? He simply promised to enforce the law if people try to set up an “autonomous zone” near the White House, which quite literally qualifies an insurrection.
Here’s the tweet.
There will never be an “Autonomous Zone” in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2020
It appears that embedding the tweet removes the warning, but if you go to Twitter, you’ll see that the post is hidden. You have to hit “view” to show it.
Twitter censors Trump tweet threatening 'serious force' against any protesters who try to establish an 'autonomous zone' in Washington DC. pic.twitter.com/iB0We9kgN3
— Byron York (@ByronYork) June 23, 2020
Here’s the message from Twitter.
We’ve placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our policy against abusive behavior, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group.https://t.co/AcmW6O6d4t
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) June 23, 2020
Twitter really, really wants to make enemies of everyone I suppose. Or they are perhaps naive enough to believe they can buy off the left if they censor conservative and Republicans voices enough. Whatever they are trying to do, it’s foolish and isn’t going to end well for them.
What’s certain is that this is not an open platform that abides by its own rules. They selectively enforce them based on partisan leanings. For example, a video went viral this morning (currently 6+ million views) on Twitter in which a black man followed a woman home, accused her of racism, filmed her house and address, and exposed her license plate, all because he claimed she flipped him off. That tweet has likely been reported tens of thousands of times at this point, yet it remains. Twitter doesn’t lift a finger. But let Trump say something as mundane as “I’m not going to allow an insurrection to occur” and they start the censorship engine.
And yet the video of the man harassing a woman and showing her license plate is still up https://t.co/dvzPnU3wSk
— Branson Taylor (@Btaylor74) June 23, 2020
Conservatives used to sympathize with social media, taking their side under the guise of them being private companies. That good will is mostly gone and they have no one to blame but themselves. These companies no longer deserve the big government carve-outs they currently enjoy regarding legal liability. They can either change their behavior, or it’s to stop giving them a free ride.
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