Twitter has deactivated an account that it says claimed to belong to a national ‘Antifa’ organization but was really created by the white supremacist group Identity Evropa.
The account, which included the Antifa logo as well as a Twitter handle ‘Antifa America’ and two hammers and sickles, posted an ‘alert’ which read: ‘Tonight’s the night, comrades.’
It continued: ‘Tonight we say “F*** The City” and we move into the residential areas…the white hoods…and we take what’s ours.’
The post ended with the hashtags #Blacklives maters and #F***America.
The tweet was deemed to have incited violence and was thus suspended by Twitter, the company told NBC News.Antifa, which is short for ‘antifascist,’ is a network of loosely organized radical far-left groups that are often seen confronting far-right extremists at rallies and demonstrations.
President Trump this weekend pledged to designate Antifa a terrorist organization, though legal experts say that there is no mechanism for the federal government to list a domestic organization as a terrorist entity.
Trump and his attorney general, Bill Barr, alleged that Antifa is behind the looting and arson that have been witnessed in dozens of American cities in the week since the police-involved killing of 46-year-old George Floyd.
Floyd, a black man, died in custody of the Minneapols Police Department.
Shortly before he died, amateur cell phone video showed the arresting officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, press his knee into Floyd’s neck while Floyd was bound in handcuffs and lying on the pavement.
Meanwhile, Twitter says that accounts are spreading misinformation online about a ‘coverup’ and a ‘blackout’ of protests in Washington, DC.
The trending hashtags were part of a campaign that alleged that internet service providers were censoring news of protests overnight as part of a secret plot to black out the demonstrators.
Twitter told NBC News that it removed the trends from the ‘trending topics’ section due to ‘coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation’ around the protests.
The company blamed several hundred accounts for spreading the false claims.
It said it has deactivated those accounts which are also boosted by ‘hundreds of spammy accounts.’
‘We’re taking action proactively on any coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation around this issue,’ a Twitter spokesperson said.
The company added: ‘We want trends to promote healthy discussions on Twitter.
‘This means that at times, we may prevent certain content from trending.
‘These include trends that violate the Twitter Rules.’