As Trump supporters stormed and breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Twitter escalated its flagging of Trump’s tweets for disputed information by marking a video he tweeted out amid the riot as carrying a “risk of violence.” The social media platform restricted the tweet from being liked or shared.
In the video, Trump speaks directly to his supporters, whom he had urged to gather in Watching D.C. as the houses of Congress took up the Electoral College certification that would finalize Joe Biden’s victory over the President. Trump used the video to once again falsely claiming election fraud, before encouraging his supporters who had unlawfully entered the Capitol building to go home in peace. “You have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order,” he says. “So go home. We love you. You’re very special…I know how you feel.”
The video was tweeted out shortly after 4 p.m. EST on Wednesday and was subsequently marked with a warning that read, “This claim of election fraud is disputed, and this tweet can’t be replied to, retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence.”
Although numerous tweets of Trump’s have been flagged for disputed information, this appears to be the first time that Twitter has locked down engagement with one of his posts as well as marked it for “risk of violence.”
Later in the evening, Trump again tweeted false information about the election and urged those who stormed the Capitol “go home with love & in peace.” Twitter similarly restricted engagement with that tweet.
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