Twitter hid a tweet from GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL) because the tweet “violated the Twitter Rules” about glorifying violence,” according to the platform.
The Tweet:
Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) June 1, 2020
Gaetz, a prominent congressional ally of Trump, responded by saying it’s a “badge of honor” to have one of his tweets censored by Twitter.
This is not Congressman Gaetz first beef with the social media company.
In 2018, he filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission because he was certain four congressman – himself, Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes & Mark Meadows– were being suppressed on Twitter.
He equated Twitter’s action to an illegal corporate donation comparing it to the use of billboards:
If Twitter was a billboard company and they gave Democrats access to their billboards and not Republicans, that would be an illegal corporate donation to the campaigns of Democrats. Here, instead of the billboard, it’s the auto fill-in function that’s a part of Twitter’s search feature that wasn’t available to me, Devin Nunes, Mark Meadows or Jim Jorden. And it’s available to Democrats.
.@RepMattGaetz on his complaint to the FCC against Twitter for “shadow banning”: “It gives advantages to our political opponents. It gives them access to the platform that we don’t have.” #Tucker pic.twitter.com/CHJRiuvPxc
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 28, 2018
