White House social media director Dan Scavino said Friday that Twitter was “full of shit” for warning that one of President Trump’s tweets violated the company’s policies by glorifying violence.
“Twitter is targeting the President of the United States 24/7, while turning their heads to protest organizers who are planning, plotting, and communicating their next moves daily on this very platform,” Scavino, who also serves as White House deputy chief of staff for communications, tweeted.
“Twitter is full of shit — more and more people are beginning to get it,” he added.
Twitter overnight placed a warning message 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.” The label initially hides the tweet but allows users to elect to view it.
In the tweet posted early Friday, Trump called the protesters “THUGS” and appeared to threaten military intervention in Minneapolis. “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” the president wrote.
Trump and his allies have stepped up criticism of Twitter following the decision to place a warning on the tweet, suggesting the social media platform is unfairly targeting Trump and conservatives for political reasons.
“Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party,” Trump tweeted Friday morning, calling on Congress to revoke Section 230, a law passed in 1996 that offers platforms legal immunity for content posted by third parties.
The official White House account also tweeted the quote about the protesters from Trump’s initial message Friday morning, but Twitter placed a warning label on that tweet as well.
Trump and other conservatives have previously accused social media platforms like Twitter of anti-conservative bias, but the president’s conflict with his favored platform reached a new high this week after Twitter placed a fact-check on his tweets about mail-in voting on Tuesday.
Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at limiting legal protections enjoyed by social media companies under Section 230, casting it as an effort to “defend free speech.” The order was sharply criticized by industry groups, and legal experts have expressed skepticism about the White House’s ability to enforce the order without action from Congress.