Twitter restricts Republican lawmaker’s Antifa tweet for ‘glorifying violence’

Twitter placed a tweet from a close political ally of the president behind a warning label Monday, citing its policy prohibiting content that promotes violence.

The tweet, from Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, suggested that the U.S. government “hunt down” anti-fascist activists in the country like it would pursue international terrorists.

“We have placed a public interest notice on this Tweet from @mattgaetz,” a Twitter spokesperson told TechCrunch, linking its platform policy page. Twitter users can still share the tweet with comment, but regular retweets, likes and replies have been deactivated.

Consistent with its previously announced policy concerning tweets from public figures that violate its rules, Twitter left the post up but placed it behind a note. “We want to make it clear today that the accounts of world leaders are not above our policies entirely,” Twitter wrote in the policy, released last year. “… We will err on the side of leaving the content up if there is a clear public interest in doing so.”

This story is developing.