Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

TWITTER HIDES Trump’s ‘Autonomous Zone’ tweet.

- RACHEL LERMAN Informatio­n for this article was contribute­d by Tim Elfrink of The Washington Post.

Twitter hid one of President Donald Trump’s tweets Tuesday with a warning label — the fifth tweet from the president that the social media company has labeled in the past several weeks.

Twitter said the tweet violates its policy prohibitin­g abusive behavior and specifical­ly “the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiab­le group.” The tweet says “There will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone’ in Washington, D.C., as long as I’m your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!”

The warning label hides the president’s tweet, and users must click it to view the text.

Twitter has faced off with Trump over his account in the past few weeks, drawing his ire as the company labeled two of his tweets for misleading informatio­n about mail-in ballots, one for a manipulate­d video and one for inciting violence.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted in response to Twitter’s labeling Tuesday, writing, “Twitter labeled it ‘abusive behavior’ for the President of the United States to say that he will enforce the law. Twitter says it is ‘abusive’ to prevent rioters from forcibly seizing territory to set up a lawless zone in our capital.”

After Twitter labeled one of Trump’s tweets as “manipulate­d media” for linking to a doctored video last week, White House spokesman Judd Deere said, “If Twitter is not careful, it’s going to have to label itself a ‘manipulato­r.’”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tweeted Tuesday for Twitter to “#StopTheBia­s.”

“The President tweets that people should stop breaking the law and Twitter moves to censor him,” he wrote.

Twitter said it would leave Trump’s Tuesday tweet online because of its “relevance to ongoing public conversati­on.”

Trump’s tweet appears to refer to the area in front of the White House that some protesters call the “Black House Autonomous Zone,” which was cleared out by police Tuesday.

There is also a so-called “autonomous zone” controlled by protesters in Seattle, which is now known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest. The zone had been largely peaceful, but shootings in the area have led the city to say it will start asking people to leave the zone at night, The Seattle Times reports.

Fellow social media giant Facebook left that post up, provoking harsh criticism against the company. Trump also posted Tuesday’s message about the autonomous zone on Facebook, where it was unlabeled. Facebook did not immediatel­y respond to a request for comment.

On Monday night, as protesters clashed with authoritie­s outside the White House, the president’s tweets highlighte­d videos of seemingly random attacks by black men against white people.

Above a retweeted video of a black man repeatedly punching a white department store employee, Trump wrote, “Looks what’s going on here. Where are the protesters?”

He also retweeted another account that asked “Where are the protests for this?” with a clip of a black man pushing a white woman into the side of a subway car.

“So terrible!” Trump added above that video.

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