Twitter flags Republican tweets for 'glorifying violence,' but leaves others untouched
The company's 'glorification of violence policy' appears unevenly enforced.
Twitter for several years has been at the forefront of one of the tech world's more intractable ongoing problems: To what extent do social media companies regulate the speech posted on their platforms? Most companies police user content to varying degrees. Facebook's "community standards," for instance, forbid an extensive range of posts from sexual content to "cruel and insensitive" material — though Twitter has for years overseen user posts in an arguably more hands-off manner: It allows sexually explicit content, for instance, while Facebook's recent censorship of anti-lockdown protest groups drove home its heavier hand of content regulation. Yet Twitter in recent weeks is indicating that it intends to increase regulation of at least some types of tweets: It has flagged several posts from prominent Republican politicians — including President Donald Trump — and claimed that their messages violate its terms of service regarding the "glorification of violence." While Twitter does in principle prohibit those types of tweets, the platform has shown that in practice, it accords far more leeway to violent rhetoric from non-Republicans.
President, GOP representative both get tweets flagged Last week, as the violent protests following the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd began picking up steam throughout the country, Trump issued a scathing late-night tweet: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1266231100780744704
Twitter quickly slapped that tweet with a warning. "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence," the company said, though it added that it had "determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."
On its website, Twitter spells out the terms of the cited policy: "Glorifying violent acts could inspire others to take part in similar acts of violence," the company states. Under the policy, users "can’t glorify, celebrate, praise or condone violent crimes, violent events where people were targeted because of their membership in a protected group, or the perpetrators of such acts." Whether the president's tweet actually violated those terms is unclear: A martial response to civic destruction is not, on its face, a "violent crime," nor are looters themselves part of a "protected group." Twitter itself does not offer any explanation as to what part of Trump's tweet specifically triggered the violation, so users are left to guess. A tweet several days later from Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz was slapped with a similar warning. Following the president's declaration that the violent anarchist group Antifa would be designated a terrorist group by the United States government, Gaetz wrote on Twitter on Monday: https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1267513356853919744
Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) June 1, 2020 That tweet, too, was hit with a violence-glorification policy violation, even though it did not specifically mention violence and again seemed to fall outside of the boundaries of the policy set by Twitter itself. "Big tech companies like Twitter appear to care more about the public’s perception of their brand than allowing free discourse on their platform," Gaetz told Just the News on Tuesday. "They have tilted the scales to editorialize and shape our conversations.” “The double standard exhibited by these tech giants is staggering. Twitter targets users like President Trump and myself when we promote the America First view that people should be held accountable for their violent actions but allow accounts espousing Antifa’s violent propaganda to remain online," he added. "We need to bring an end to this unacceptable hypocrisy by reforming the laws that give entities like Twitter so much protection.”
https://justthenews.com/nation/technology/twitter-flags-republican-tweets-glorifying-violence-leaves-others-untouched