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Twitter refuses to flag GOP tweet asking if supporters will die for Trump

State Republican Party says it condemns violence while sharing suggestively violent content in support of the president’s undemocratic attempts to overturn the election

Chris Riotta
New York
Wednesday 09 December 2020 13:12 EST
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Trump’s pledge to intervene in Texas election challenge branded ‘insane’

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Twitter has declined to take down a controversial post published by the Arizona Republican Party that asked voters if they’re willing to give their lives to President Donald Trump’s undemocratic attempts to overturn his electoral defeat.

The social media platform said in a statement to CNN the post was not technically in violation of its rules.

Another post the Arizona GOP published on Tuesday, but later deleted, featured a clip from Rambo IV: Live for nothing, or die for something, along with a caption that quoted the film and stated: “This is what we do, who we are. Live for nothing, or die for something”.

Arizona GOP spokesperson Zachery Henry said the state’s Republican Party “condemns all forms of violence in the strongest terms” in a statement.

“Fictional movie scenes should be weighed in their proper context,” he added, referring to the since-deleted tweet. “However, due to concerns about copyright and fair use law, this clip has been removed.”

The social media platform has been labelling scores of tweets from right-wing corners of the web in recent weeks which threatened violence, as well as others spreading misinformation about the results of the 2020 presidential elections.

Mr Trump himself has seen dozens of his tweets labeled as misinformation on the platform, as the president continued to promote baseless claims of national vote rigging.

There has been no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 elections.

In fact, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security have both said the election was safe and secure, despite the president’s allegations.

Mr Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has been traveling the country in recent weeks to promote the president’s claims of alleged voter fraud in meeting with lawmakers in critical battleground states where he lost to President-elect Joe Biden, like Michigan, Arizona and Georgia. He has since tested positive for Covid-19.

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