Twitter allows 'verified' calls for violence on pro-Trump teens

Not sure. But someone put together a nice collage of the mob pic.twitter.com/Zh78SL2FJ7

— 4154Life (@4154Life) January 20, 2019

Twitter has assured its users that it is cracking down on the distribution of violent threats, but the platform allowed a barrage of attacks on the pro-Trump Kentucky students who were falsely accused of harassing a Native American protester Friday at the Lincoln Memorial.

Among the tweets are calls for posting the addresses of some of the students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky, Breitbart News reported.

The students were waiting for their buses after participating in the March for Life pro-life event when they were confronted by members of a group called the Black Hebrew Israelites and a number of Native Americans, led by Nathan Phillips. Media, based on a short viral video and Phillips' claims, reported the students surrounded the activist and chanted racial insults. But longer videos that emerged later showed Phillips was the initiator and the African Americans were shouting racial epithets at the students.

Breitbart said many of the Twitter users who "flooded the platform with disgusting abuse, violent threats, and calls to harass" the students had blue checkmarks next to their names, meaning their messages were endorsed by Twitter.

Most of the tweets remain on the platform by Monday, Breitbart said, which noted Twitter has deverified or banned conservative activists "for far less."

Actress Kathy Griffin wrote: Ps. The reply from the school was pathetic and impotent. Name these kids. I want NAMES. Shame them. If you think these f-----s wouldn’t dox you in a heartbeat, think again.

Donald Trump Jr. on Monday called on Twitter to ban Griffin calling for "doxing" the teens, the Washington Examiner reported.

Among the Twitter messages allowed to spread widely:

I would put $1000 into a gofundme for someone to punch him right in the f-----g mouth — David Dellanave (@ddn) January 19, 2019
Giving a s--t-eating grin to a Native American's face isn't legally violence. But he is smiling *about* the violence. He is saying, "my people hurt you, and you can't touch me even while I gloat about it." It is fascism. And you should punch fascists. — Jeffrey Grubb (@JeffGrubb) January 19, 2019
Punch the little mfs in the face. Pain is an excellent teacher. — Simran Jeet Singh
I know he’s like a teen or whatever but I still wanna hit him. Like super hard. Right in that bish ass lookin face. Ya know? — Patton Oswalt
"Let Nazi teens have their privacy" is just the most white supremacist, ahistorical horsesh--. Like, there was literally an organization called the Hitler Youth and it served a very deliberate purpose. F--- off and read a book
Maybe doxing racist teens is a powerful deterrent against being a racist teen. We all know how much fash love discipline and consequences
If I were in a room with the MAGA Kid, Hitler, and Toby and had three bullets, I’d shoot the MAGA Kid three times — Chad Chamberlain (@ChadChum15) January 20, 2019
I hope all these MAGA kids in the news get cancer and the horrible parents that raised them this way get to suffer alongside them. — Jez Watson (@jezawatson) January 20, 2019
I'm willing to bet that fifty years from now, a defining image of this political era will be that smug white MAGA teen disrespecting a Native elder and veteran. It just captures so much.

Breitbart News said a Twitter spokeswoman acknowledged that the platform initially got its Twitter Moments feature on the incident wrong, falsely accusing the high school kids of "mocking" the native american activist.

"Twitter Curation strives to fairly and accurately contextualize the nature of large conversations on the platform," said the spokeswoman. "The original Covington video appeared on Friday night. However, the Curation team did not compile a Moment until additional news media reporting emerged to provide context to the video — this included a source video interview with Nathan Phillips, which was featured in the Moment.

"As soon as additional information emerged on Sunday night, including a full video and statement from the Covington high schoolers, we updated the Moment to reflect and focus on the new context."

However, Breitbart reported the "fake news" version was still trending on Moments as late as 11:53 p.m. on Sunday.