June 24 (UPI) — The microblogging site Twitter has again flagged a tweet from President Donald Trump, this time for violating a policy that bars abusive behavior.
Trump threatened via Twitter on Tuesday to use “serious force” against protesters who may try to establish an autonomous zone in Washington, D.C. The tweet followed an announcement from Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan on Monday that such a zone that had occupied a six-block area within the heart of the city for two weeks would be dismantled.
The social media platform on Tuesday said it placed a public interest note on the president’s tweet “for violating our policy against abusive behavior, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group.”
The public interest label blocks users from seeing the tweet until clicking on it.
“Per our policies, this Tweet will remain on the service given its relevance to ongoing public conversation,” Twitter Safety explained. “Engagements with the Tweet will be limited. People will be able to Retweet with Comment, but not Like, Reply or Retweet it.”
Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, responded to Twitter, saying it labeled as abusive behavior the president calling for the law to be enforced.
“Twitter says it is ‘abusive’ to prevent rioters from forcibly seizing territory to set up a lawless zone in our capital,” she said. “We must have LAW AND ORDER!”
Twitter has moderated at least five of the president’s tweets since late last month when it placed fact-checking labels on two tweets by the president concerning mail-in ballots it said contained harmful or misleading information.
Trump responded to Twitter’s moves to amend his tweets in late May by signing an executive order that limits the legal protections of social media companies if they censor, edit or delete user posts.
