President Trump spreads false claim that 75-year-old man is “antifa provocateur”

Photo by Bill Jacobsen

Today President Trump floated a rumor on Twitter that Martin Gugino, the man who was pushed by Buffalo police last Thursday during a protest was an antifa provocateur. Yes, that man pictured above who looks like he doesn't have a violent bone in his body except for the fact that he probably makes a mean rib roast and works the hell out of his front lawn.

In a post that immediately drew the ire of media, democrats and people with hearts, President Trump cited far-right cable news network OANN that suggested that the 75-year-old man was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order blackout equipment. He then went on to say that the man, who again is 75 years old, fell harder than he was pushed and it may have been a setup.

Is anyone keeping track of how many rules President Trump has broken on Twitter? I'm pretty sure this tweet counts as targeted harassment and promotes hateful conduct.

How low do you have to sink to essentially say that a 75-year-old man was asking to get pushed and hit his head violently on the ground? By the way, that man is still in critical condition from the head trauma he suffered.

If they can ban his tweets for promoting violence, why couldn't they also punish him for spreading false reports?

Hell, put him in Twitter jail for a day. Or even better, create a special task force dedicated to monitoring everything he says in a day. Pay them twice as much as your regular employees and give them extra vacation time - that would be a fair exchange.

Media platforms like Twitter and Facebook need to understand that their websites are essentially the most powerful mediums out today. A lot of people get their news from their sites and that means theirs a higher risk of getting false information too. While these sites would understandably not be able to block everything false that's being posted, they could at least do a better job with monitoring a president who clearly doesn't care about facts.

At the very least they can continue to fact check his tweets like they've done in the past. However these one time things need to happen more frequently because it works to provide those who aren’t as media savvy a chance to educate themselves and make decisions on their own.

I'm just glad that the officers responsible for this have been charged in the attack.

Anyway, what do you think?

-Alex

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