President Trump on Friday accused Twitter of unfairly targeting himself and other Republicans, just hours after the social media giant said one of his tweets overnight violated the company’s policies by glorifying violence.
Trump also called on Congress to revoke Section 230, a law passed two decades ago that offers platforms legal immunity for content posted by third parties and gives them cover to make good-faith efforts to moderate their platforms.
“Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party,” Trump tweeted. “They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated!”
Earlier Friday morning, Twitter placed a warning on one of Trump’s tweets about protests in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd in police custody, saying it violated the company’s policies regarding the “glorification of violence.”
In the tweet, Trump called the protesters “THUGS” and appeared to threaten military intervention to stop the violence.
“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,” the president wrote in the tweet that has since been flagged by Twitter. “Thank you!”
Trump has repeatedly accused social media companies of anti-conservative bias, but his battle with Twitter has dramatically escalated since Tuesday when the social media giant added a fact-check label to one of the president’s tweets on mail-in voting.
The president accused Twitter of stifling free speech and signed an executive order Thursday aimed at limiting legal protections enjoyed by social media companies under Section 230. Legal experts have doubted the government’s ability to enforce the executive order, however, absent a new law passed by Congress.
As the Trump administration moved forward with the executive order, Twitter moved to add fact-checking labels to hundreds of tweets, including one from a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson who had claimed the novel coronavirus may have been brought to China by a U.S. military member.