Twitter has flagged a tweet by President of the United States, Donald Trump, on the unrest in Minneapolis as ‘glorifying violence’.
Okay.ng understands that there is a protest in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, who died after Minneapolis police arrested him on Monday on suspicion of using a counterfeit banknote.
Police handcuffed him and held him to the ground, with a bystander video showing an officer pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck.
The videos showed Floyd saying that he couldn’t breathe until he went silent and limp. He was later declared dead.
Hundreds of people had begun marching in Minneapolis in the late afternoon – many wear masks as protection against the novel coronavirus – while in St. Paul, just to the east, police said there was ongoing looting as multiple fires were reported.
Reacting to this, Trump had tweeted that the military was being sent-in to the embattled midwestern city as authorities there struggle to control the unrest.
Part of the post labeled by Twitter as ‘glorifying violence’ reads: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
The micro-blogging platform in response to the tweet noted: “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.”
It can be recalled that Twitter fact-checked Trump’s tweets on mail-in ballots which led to him (Trump) signing an executive order to regulate social media platforms.
