Thread by @robbystarbuck

I reached out to a Twitter rep about them censoring @realDonaldTrump’s tweet about looting leading to shooting. What they said was shocking even to me. 1st I pointed out that Twitter sent @WhiteHouse an email saying that the tweet in question did NOT violate the terms of service.

They said that’s not unusual because it’s an automated response. Here’s where things get interesting...

I asked why they decided to censor someone so clearly subjective. I explained that I read it as a fact that shootings often happen as a result of looting.

Even pointing out how differently the tweet can be interpreted by people they said they’re "confident in the context of the rest of the tweet, and the historical context of the phrase used, that his tweet violates their rules" I said "Even with his clarification he posted today?"

Twitter rep said "We don’t believe (his new clarifying tweet) changes the context of the tweet last night."

Here are the tweets side by side.

You be the judge.

Do you think it changed the context from what Twitter ASSUMED his original tweet to mean (glorifying violence)?

Isn’t this a whole lot of "believing" for a social media platform to be doing? They’re essentially saying that they can translate our thoughts better than we can.

That only THEY know the real truth.

Isn’t that a really dangerous belief for people who control this site to have?

By denying that @realDonaldTrump’s tweet today provided context in any way when he did that new tweet explicitly to add context, Twitter is literally denying basic reality for the sake of scoring political points vs. the President of the United States during dangerous riots.