Mark Zuckerberg Explains Why Facebook Isn't Taking Down Trump's Tweets

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

Protests have sparked across the country following the senseless murder of George Floyd, with citizens across the country expressing their outrage over his wrongful death.

Amidst the mostly-peaceful protests, riots begun to break out in the city of Minneapolis–where Floyd was murdered–which led to President Chump taking to Twitter on Friday morning to voice his disapproval of the whole thing.

The man has never been eloquent, and nobody is surprised by the heinous things he said about protestors being “thugs”–but Trump tweeting “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” is what got Americans especially up in arms, since it’s a term attributed to a 1967 order by segregationist Miami Police Chief Walter Headley.

Since these tweets are very likely to incite violence, many have been asking why Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, hasn’t taken any action in deleting them entirely, rather than simply putting a content warning label on it.

Later that night, Zuckerberg explained the company’s decision not to erase his lil President’s tweets completely:

“We looked very closely at the post that discussed the protests in Minnesota to evaluate whether it violated our policies. Although the post had a troubling historical reference, we decided to leave it up because the National Guard references meant we read it as a warning about state action, and we think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force. Our policy around incitement of violence allows discussion around state use of force, although I think today’s situation raises important questions about what potential limits of that discussion should be.”