Twitter Hides Trump Tweet on Minneapolis

Twitter isn't backing down in its dispute with President Trump. The company, accusing the president of breaking its rules, hid one of his tweets early Friday, putting it behind a warning that it was "glorifying violence," the Guardian reports. The president, denouncing violent protests in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, called protesters "thugs" and said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." "This tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence," Twitter's warning said. "However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the tweet to remain accessible." The warning included a link to Twitter's policy on public-interest exceptions.

The policy states that rule-breaking posts from government officials will sometimes be allowed to remain "given the significant public interest in knowing and being able to discuss their actions and statements. In another tweet, Trump slammed Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey as "very weak." Told about the tweet early Friday, the mayor said: "Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your own actions," per the New York Times. "Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis." Trump responded to Twitter's move in a Friday morning tweet, saying Twitter was targeting "Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States," but was "doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party." (More President Trump stories.)