Far-Right Group Retweeted by Trump Is Booted by Twitter

Britain First is gone amid crackdown on 'abusive' posts
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 18, 2017 1:45 PM CST
Twitter Suspends Account That Trump Had Retweeted
This is a March 1, 2017 file photo of deputy leader of far-right group Britain First Jayda Fransen.   (Ben Stevens/PA File via AP)

Twitter suspended three accounts belonging to a far-right group in Britain on Monday, a development that might not have made headlines if not for the group's connection to President Trump. Last month, the president set off a controversy when he retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by Jayda Fransen of the anti-immigration group Britain First. Fransen boasted of Trump's retweets at the time, but she won't be able to post anything new for a while: Her account and at least two others linked to her group are now suspended, reports CNN.

Twitter says it will not comment about decisions made regarding particular accounts, per the BBC, but the move comes just as the site announced that it was enforcing new rules to curb "hateful conduct and abusive behavior." It's not clear whether the Britain First accounts will be allowed to resurface. "If an account's profile information includes a violent threat or multiple slurs, epithets, racist or sexist tropes, incites fear, or reduces someone to less than human, it will be permanently suspended," reads a company post. The crackdown is part of Twitter's move to rein in what it sees as abusive content in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Va., notes the Washington Post. (More Twitter stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X