A tweet describing Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, the suspected gunman in Monday's Colorado supermarket shooting, as a "white Christian terrorist" does not violate the social network's misinformation policies, Twitter told Newsweek.
Many Twitter users assumed the shooter was white before his name was released by police in Boulder, Colorado. Several pointed to the massacre as another example of racial injustice and white supremacy in the United States.
Newsweek put the misleading posts to Twitter. The social network has been accused of left-wing bias and anti-Christian prejudice in the way it polices speech on its platform.
In January, for example, Twitter locked the account of The Catholic Review, apparently for tweeting an article that described assistant Health and Human Services Secretary Rachel Levine as "a biological man identifying as a transgender woman".
A Twitter spokeswoman said the "white Christian terrorist" tweet and other false posts did not violate its rules.
"The Tweets referenced are not in violation of the Twitter Rules", the spokesperson told Newsweek in an email. "We will not take action on every instance of misinformation. Currently, our misinformation rules cover COVID-19 misinformation, synthetic and manipulated media and civic integrity".
