The death of George Floyd, 46, an African-American man has sparked debates regarding police brutality and institutional racism in the United States of America yet again.
In Minneapolis, where the incident occurred, widespread protests have broken out and protesters even set fire to a police precinct on Thursday night.
In reaction to this, US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to condemn the inaction of the Mayor Jacob Frey, whom he referred to as 'radically left'. He also warned Frey to "get his act together and get the city under control" or else he would send in the National Guard "to get the job done right".
In a follow-up tweet which has now been blocked by Twitter , the POTUS also mentioned that he spoke to the Minneapolis Governor, Tim Walz and assured him that the "military was with him all the way". However, in the same tweet, he described the protesters as 'thugs' and accused them of dishonouring the memory of George Floyd. He said that if there was anymore difficulty, they would assume control and warned that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."
This remark has resulted in Twitter flagging this tweet of the President. Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder and CEO took to Twitter on Thursday to fact-check Trump, where he said that the platform would continue to point out incorrect information pertaining to elections
Jack also said that this does not make Twitter the 'arbiter of truth' and they they merely aim to "connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions."
With much hate speech and misinformation being circulated over the social networking site, this move to block a tweet by the President of the US may be viewed as the first step towards curbing such narratives from being peddled in the future.
