Twitter deletes Dr M’s tweet after flagging it for 'glorifying violence'

• UPDATED 1.00AM | Mahathir's Facebook post on the same issue has also been removed.
  
• UPDATED 11.15PM | The offending tweet has been removed.

Microblogging service Twitter has removed one of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s tweets after initially flagging it for “glorifying violence”.

As of 10.50pm today, the offending tweet has been replaced with the message “This tweet violated Twitter rules”.

The tweet was part of a series of tweets reiterating the content of the former premier’s latest blog post, which was written in response to French President Emmanuel Macron's purported remarks about Islam.

The removed tweet by Mahathir originally read, “Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past.”

Less than an hour before the tweet was removed, Twitter flagged it for allegedly glorifying violence.

When retweeted at the time, the offending post was replaced with the message: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence.

“However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

The message from Twitter (photo; below) also provides users with links to either “unhide” Mahathir’s tweet, or read more about its public interest exception policy.

Under the policy, tweets that would otherwise be removed could be retained if deemed to be of public interest to do so. This is only applicable to elected and government officials who meet certain criteria.

Prior to being deleted, many Twitter users expressed alarm and condemnation over Mahathir’s post.

His statement has since been carried in the international press, including Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, Qatar’s Al-Jazeera, Metro in the UK, New York Post in the US, and the newswire service Reuters.

In response, French Secretary of State for the Digital Sector Cédric O said he has spoken to Twitter officials to call for Mahathir’s Twitter account to be suspended immediately.

“If not, Twitter would be an accomplice to a formal call for murder,” he said.

Indian politician Amit Malviya, who heads the ruling party BJP’s online propaganda efforts, described Mahathir’s remarks as “undiluted hate speech”.

“One wonders what happened to community standards of Facebook and Twitter? Is it being inconsistently applied depending on the person and what is being said? Convenience?” he said before Twitter began imposing sanctions on Mahathir.

Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia Andrew Goledzinowski said he was deeply disturbed by Mahathir’s statement.

“I know that he has not, and would not, advocated actual violence. But in the current climate, words can have consequences,” he said.

Earlier, Mahathir wrote on his blog and on Twitter that he did not condone the killing of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty.

However, he said Muslims have a right to be angry at France over past grievances with the former colonial power.

He also pointed out that many Muslims don’t respond in kind, and France should take cognisance of this.

“Muslims have a right to be angry and to kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past. But by and large, the Muslims have not applied the ‘eye for an eye’ law.

“Muslims don’t. The French shouldn’t. Instead, the French should teach their people to respect other people’s feelings.

“Since you (Macron) have blamed all Muslims and the Muslims’ religion for what was done by one angry person, the Muslims have a right to punish the French. The boycott cannot compensate the wrongs committed by the French all these years,” he said.

Mahathir's blog post was also reproduced in full as a single Facebook post. The post has since been removed, but it is unclear by whom.

For the record, the French Embassy in Kuala Lumpur had said Macron was not targeting the Muslim community as a whole in his speech but was instead speaking against elements of radical Islam that espouse violence.

The Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim), meanwhile, had warned against acting beyond the boundaries of law and religion in response to caricatures depicting Prophet Muhammad, which schoolteacher Paty had allegedly shown in his class.

“Islam forbids human actions which may lead to harm, evil, violence, and tyranny, whether among Muslims or non-Muslims.

“Islam rejects any extremist movement that uses violence, murder and war that threaten the peace of the country and the world,” said Jakim deputy director-general (Operations) Abdul Aziz Jusoh, in conjunction with celebrations of the prophet’s birthday today.

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