Matt Gaetz tweet flagged by Twitter for ‘glorifying violence’

Twitter Inc. says that Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, violated the company’s policy around glorifying violence in a tweet posted Monday.

In the tweet, Gaetz called the far-left, anti-fascist protesters known as Antifa “terrorists.”

He then asked, “can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?”

Twitter hid the tweet behind a message saying it violated company rules, meaning that users need to click in order to view it, but the company didn’t remove the tweet from the service. Twitter does not remove tweets from well-known politicians who violate its rules, citing a “public interest” in seeing what elected officials say.

President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning that he was going to designate Antifa a terrorist organization. A Twitter spokesperson confirmed Gaetz’s tweet “is in violation of our glorification of violence policy.”

It’s the second time in a week that Twitter has hidden a tweet from a well-known politician. Late last week, Twitter hid a tweet from Trump, who posted that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” — a reference to protests in Minneapolis that have since spread across the country.

Twitter has drawn ire from conservative politicians who believe the company’s rules go too far and that a decision earlier in the week to fact-check comments Trump made about mail-in ballots interfered with the president’s free speech.