Twitter Flags President Trump’s Tweet About Shooting Minneapolis Looters for ‘Glorifying Violence’

Twitter, which this week earned U.S. President Donald Trump’s ire by posting fact-check notices next to some of his tweets, has put up a rule-violation notice on one of his most recent missives.

Saying that the president’s comments about protests in Minneapolis glorified violence and were thus against its rules, the social media company has obscured the offending message on his profile with the following warning:

“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

….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!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020

A spokesman for Twitter didn’t immediately respond to an email and phone call for comment.

A “View” option to open and read the tweet is made available alongside the warning. The president’s comments, concluding with the words “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” incited a strong response from other Twitter users, but those replies have since been hidden or removed by the company. The options to reply and like the tweet have also been disabled, while the retweet and quote-tweet functions have been left active.

We have placed a public interest notice on this Tweet from @realdonaldtrump. https://t.co/6RHX56G2zt

— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) May 29, 2020