Trump Fires Back After Twitter Hides Tweet

He repeats call to 'Repeal Section 230!!!'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 29, 2020 9:21 AM CDT
Trump Fires Back After Twitter Hides Tweet
President Trump answers questions from reporters during an event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, May 26, 2020, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Trump fired back Friday morning after Twitter hid one of his tweets behind a warning for "glorifying violence." He accused Twitter of enforcing its rules unevenly to target conservatives and renewed his call to regulate social media companies more stiffly. "Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated!" tweeted Trump, who signed an executive order targeting social media firms Thursday, days after being fact-checked by Twitter. In follow-up tweets, he added "Repeal Section 230!!!" and "CHINA!" Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, considered a cornerstone of today's Internet, shields service providers from liability for content posted on their platforms.

Joe Biden has also called for Section 230 to be revoked, though analysts say it is stranger for Trump to target the law. If attempts to revoke it survive court challenges, which is seen as highly unlikely, the president would find it harder to post content considered false or defamatory, the New York Times reports. "Ironically, Donald Trump is a big beneficiary of Section 230," says ACLU senior legislative counsel Kate Ruane. "If platforms were not immune under the law, then they would not risk the legal liability that could come with hosting Donald Trump’s lies, defamation, and threats." In the tweet that fell foul of Twitter's rules the president, referring to the Minneapolis protests, said "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." It's a line attributed to notorious former Miami police chief Walter Headley, whose policies were blamed for race riots in the 1960s, the Guardian reports. (More President Trump stories.)

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