In the heat of the violence in Minneapolis during the George Floyd riots last year, President Trump tweeted that the rioters were dishonoring Floyd's memory, that he had federal troops ready to intervene if necessary, and that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."
Antifa and Black Lives Matter flew into a rage, and according to the new AP piece, "America 'on fire': Facebook watched as Trump ignited hate," Facebook's automated controls meant to catch posts that "violate rules predicted with almost 90% certainty that Trump's message broke the tech company’s rules against inciting violence."
"They're saying, 'Well, he incited the rioters by saying that,'" responds Dan Gainor of the Media Research Center's (MRC) TechWatch. "No, I'm sorry -- the rioters were rioting already. You don't get to blame Donald Trump for their behavior attacking him."
And though Amanda Seitz writes in her piece that "it wasn’t until after Trump posted about Floyd’s death that the reports of violence and hate speech increased 'rapidly' on Facebook across the country," the MRC spokesman points out that the rioting and violence started well before Floyd met is tragic demise. For example, DC Police had to use these tear gas grenades against rioters on President Trump's Inauguration Day.
But while commending Twitter for responding quickly at the time "by covering the president's tweet with a warning and prohibiting users from sharing it any further," the AP blames Facebook for not taking any action on Trump's message.
"They have been mad since 2015 that Donald Trump was allowed on these platforms," Gainor adds about the left and social media. "They consider Twitter their territory. They're mad that conservatives are on Facebook. They're mad that the most popular content is on Facebook."
So why would a liberal outlet like the AP report so critically about the fellow liberal big tech platform? Gainor says it is because the far left wants all conservatives booted from Facebook, and they are looking for any basis to make it happen.
"This is what the left is trying to do," he asserts. "They're not subtle about this. This is all designed to pressure Facebook further and further to the left, and say, 'You can't allow conservative content.'"
