Twitter: Tweeting “Burn Down Louisville” Does Not Violate Rules
Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

Despite its rules against encouraging or glorifying violence and promoting terrorism, Twitter is permitting users to tweet “burn-down-Louisville” messages.

Unhinged Twitter users are tweeting to destroy the city in Kentucky because a grand jury refused to indict cops involved in the shooting death of the latest martyr for the Black Lives Matter movement, Breonna Taylor.

She died after her boyfriend began a gun battle with police. The boyfriend fired. The police fired back. Taylor was hit six times. A single bullet killed her.

The grand jury did indict one officer on three counts of wanton endangerment because his gunfire hit a neighboring apartment.

Whatever the merits of the grand jury’s decision, Twitter’s rules are clear: No advocating violence.

Except in the cause of imagined “racial justice,” apparently.

Burn It Down
Breitbart News has curated several burn-down-Louisville tweets and asked about one in particular.

“Louisville, KY will burn tonight” the now-deleted arson threat from Lee G News said.

Reported Breitbart:

The tweet included a picture of the vlogger and one other person holding raised fists, wearing masks bearing the name “Breonna Taylor.”

While the account itself is not particularly influential, Twitter’s official response to the tweet indicates that the platform has a high tolerance for tweets promoting the domestic terrorist violence that has been endemic in American cities over the past four months.

“I can confirm that the Tweet referenced does not violate Twitter Rules,” a Twitter spokeswoman told Breitbart News.

Twitter doesn’t much care what other tweets say, either.

“Burn it all down,” Guy Ben-Aharon wrote above an NBC story.

 

 

Wrote Twitter user Dom Pablo, “And I hope they burn Louisville down tonight, yll hear me? Burn it down, the college the precincts the whole thing.”

 

 

“I hope They burn down the entire city of Louisville,” The Great and Terrible opined.

 

 

Above a tweet that noted Taylor was not listed as a victim in the single indictment of the cop, honeybutter provided this sentiment:

 

 

Another Twitter user provided a long list of blue-check Twitter account holder who have tweeted “burn it down.”

 

 

Twitter Rules, Verbatim
Twitter doesn’t believe those open calls to destroy an American city violates its rules, which state on two Web pages that such material is forbidden.

Under its “Violent Threats Policy,” Twitter says, “You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence.”

It explains the rule this way:

We have a policy against threatening violence on Twitter. We define violent threats as statements of an intent to kill or inflict serious physical harm on a specific person or group of people.

Perhaps “Burn it Down,” in Twitter’s mind, only applies to buildings, and not “a specific person or group of people.”

Even more to the point is the social-media site’s policy that forbids “glorifying violence.”

“Glorifying violent acts could inspire others to take part in similar acts of violence,” the rules say:

Under this policy, you can’t glorify, celebrate, praise or condone violent crimes, violent events where people were targeted because of their membership in a protected group, or the perpetrators of such acts. We define glorification to include praising, celebrating, or condoning statements, such as “I’m glad this happened”, “This person is my hero”, “I wish more people did things like this,”, or “I hope this inspires others to act”.

“Violations of this policy include, but are not limited to, glorifying, praising, condoning, or celebrating … violent acts committed by civilians that resulted in death or serious physical injury, e.g., murders, mass shootings.”

Twitter’s “terrorism and violent extremism policy” would seem to apply as well. “You may not threaten or promote terrorism or violent extremism,” the rules say.

The rules also say that one cannot promote the activities of terror groups, but Twitter doesn’t consider the group, whose followers are destroying American cities and shooting at cops, a terror group.

Image: screenshot from Twitter post

R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.