Twitter took down a white supremacist group’s fake antifa account on June 1.
CNN reported the account @ANTIFA_US had tweeted on May 31, “Comrades Tonight we say ‘F— The City’ and we move into the residential areas … the white hoods …. and we take what’s ours #BlacklivesMaters #F—America.” Donald Trump, Jr., was among the people who cited the account as evidence of Antifa’s role in the violence during some of the protests against the death of George Floyd.
According to CNN and other media outlets such as Axios, the account was created by Identity Evropa, which now operates under the name American Identitarian Movement.
“This account violated our platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts,” a spokesperson for Twitter told Axios. “We took action after the account sent a Tweet inciting violence and broke the Twitter rules.”
Antifa, which is short for anti-fascist, is a group of individuals who state their mission is to oppose fascism and racism. President Donald Trump declared antifa a domestic terror organization on May 31, singling out the organization as being behind some of the violence at the Floyd demonstrations. Attorney General Bill Barr said in a statement on the same day, “Federal law enforcement actions will be directed at apprehending and charging the violent radical agitators who have hijacked peaceful protest and are engaged in violations of federal law.”
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Center on Extremism Associate Director Joanna Mendelson told the Journal in a phone interview that the ADL hasn’t seen any evidence of violence from Antifa or white supremacists at the demonstrations. The ADL has, however, documented instances in which anarchists and those who are nonideological are committing violence at the protests.
“There are some who are interested in the thrills of the confrontation,” she said. “They’re not necessarily ideologically oriented.”