New York (CNN Business)A Twitter account that tweeted a call to violence and claimed to be representing the position of “Antifa” was in fact created by a known white supremacist group, Twitter said Monday. The company removed the account.
Before it emerged the account was run by white supremacists, Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump’s son, pointed his 2.8 million Instagram followers to the account as an example how dangerous Antifa is.
“This account violated our platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement.
“We took action after the account sent a Tweet inciting violence and broke the Twitter Rules.”
Although the account only had a few hundred followers, it is an example of white supremacists seeking to inflame tensions in the United States by posing as left-wing activists online.
The revelation of the account comes as President Donald Trump increasingly blames left-wing activists for violence occurring at protests across America.
On Sunday, Trump tweeted he would designate Antifa a terrorist organization, despite the US government having no existing legal authority to do so. Antifa, short for anti-fascists, describes a broad, loosely-organized group of people whose political beliefs lean toward the left — often the far-left — but do not conform with the Democratic Party platform.
Antifa positions can be hard to define, but many people espousing those beliefs support oppressed populations and protest the amassing of wealth by corporations and elites. Some employ radical or militant tactics to get out their messages.
The fake account, @ANTIFA_US, tweeted Sunday, “ALERT Tonight’s the night, Comrades Tonight we say “F**k The City” and we move into the residential areas… the white hoods…. and we take what’s ours #BlacklivesMaters #F**kAmerica.”
Source: White supremacists pose as Antifa on Twitter, call for violence
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