WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz is the latest lawmaker cited by Twitter for violating its rules about glorifying violence.
The Florida Republican follows the leader of his own party -- and the United States, President Donald Trump -- for getting the warning after he tweeted Monday, "Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?"
The tweet remains posted on Gaetz's feed but users there have to click on "view" before being able to see it. Twitter defends its practice of keeping the tweet public with a warning because it fits the criteria for being in the public interest.
Users also are prevented from directly "retweeting" or "liking" the tweet because it carries the warning.
Gaetz referred to the far-left anti-fascist activist movement in his message, which Trump in recent days has blamed as spurring some of the violent protests across the country since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis custody.
He doubled-down later the day, calling Twitter's warning "my badge of honor."
Twitter flagged Trump for the first time last week when he tweeted, in part, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." The tweet widely was condemned as racist for parroting the words of Miami Police Chief Walter Headley, who in the 1960s ordered the police to act upon "young hoodlums ... who have taken advantage of the civil rights campaign."
The president stood by his tweet later in the day as the official White House Twitter account republished it.
Trump's back-and-forth with Twitter has been ongoing for years as he criticized the company for minimizing conservative voices. More recently, Twitter fact-checked the president as he tweeted unsubstantiated claims about mail-in voting, which prompted him to sign an executive order challenging lawsuit protections allowing for free speech on the internet.
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