Twitter changes reason for not removing anti-Muslim videos retweeted by Trump

Twitter clarified Friday why it didn’t delete anti-Muslim videos that President Trump retweeted earlier in the week, saying that the videos did not violate its policies.

The company had previously said the videos were kept up because they were “newsworthy for public interest,” but retracted this on Friday.

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“To clarify: these videos are not being kept up because they are newsworthy or for public interest,” the company wrote. “Rather, these videos are permitted on Twitter based on our current media policy.”

Twitter has in the past justified leaving up some content that would otherwise violate its terms of service, because of their perceived newsworthiness. Twitter notes that in this case, the videos were not kept up because of this, but because they didn’t violate Twitter’s policies.

“We mistakenly pointed to the wrong reason we didn’t take action on the videos from earlier this week,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted. “We’re still looking critically at all of our current policies, and appreciate all the feedback.”

In response to one question, Dorsey rejected the idea that Twitter’s decision was motivated by a desire to keep Trump on Twitter.

The videos in question were originally tweeted by far-right British figure Jayda Fransen that purported to show Muslims committing violence against others.

Fransen has been charged with using “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior” in speeches she made earlier this year, according to the BBC. 

British Prime Minister Theresa May called Trump’s decision to retweet the videos “wrong,” saying that he was contributing to “hateful narratives.”