Twitter account suspended for 'glorifying violence' after copying President Trump tweets
2 June 2020, 14:16
A Twitter account was suspended for “glorifying violence” after posting the same tweets as President Donald Trump, whose account remains active.
In an experiment, @SuspendThePres copied tweets which the President had posted, including his controversial “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” post.
But where President Trump only had his tweet labelled with a warning, the experiment account was suspended for 12 hours.
Twitter user Bizarre Lazar, who started the account, said it took 68 hours for the account to be suspended, and the offending tweet was deleted.
The account was started to see if President Trump’s use of Twitter violates their Terms of Service, which the experiment appeared to confirm.
Experiment Update - Well it finally happened. Took longer than expected. 12 hour suspension and had to delete the offending tweet. Here’s the screenshots @suspendthepres. Will post to the account when suspension is lifted. pic.twitter.com/wvKV9HDKBn
— Bizarre Lazar (@BizarreLazar) June 1, 2020
The tweet was posted by the President on May 29 and remains on the site with a warning that it “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 said: “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!”
This account will tweet what the President tweets. Let’s see if it gets suspended for violating twitters TOS. Follow along with this social experiment. Report any tweets that violate the rules. Thank you.
— Will they suspend me? (@SuspendThePres) May 30, 2020
The President was censored after he threatened to deploy the military to Minneapolis to "shoot" rioters as a third night of protests swept the city.
He issued the threat just hours after demonstrators in the US city stormed and set fire to a police station which had become a focus for protests.
Demonstrators have violently clashed with police after white police officer Derek Chauvin was seen on video kneeling on the neck of handcuffed black man George Floyd who later died following an arrest.
Just hours after the Tweet from the President was posted, it was censored by Twitter with the social media site saying it had violated their policies around "glorifying violence."
Twitter said: "This Tweet violates our policies regarding the glorification of violence based on the historical context of the last line, its connection to violence, and the risk it could inspire similar actions today.
"We've taken action in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts, but have kept the Tweet on Twitter because it is important that the public still be able to see the Tweet given its relevance to ongoing matters of public importance.
"As is standard with this notice, engagements with the Tweet will be limited. People will be able to Retweet with Comment, but will not be able to Like, Reply or Retweet it."