Does Donald Trump's CNN Wrestling Tweet Violate Twitter's Policies On Abusive Behavior?

CNN accused President Donald Trump of inciting violence after he tweeted a video Sunday showing him wrestling a person whose face was superimposed with the news network’s logo. Trump’s tweet was the latest in the series of attacks on media who he accused of promoting fake news.

The video is an edited version of Trump’s appearance at a professional wrestling show WWE in 2007. In the original clip, he physically attacks WWE CEO Vince McMahon outside the wrestling ring. However, in the recent video posted by Trump, McMahon’s face was superimposed with CNN logo. He also called the news network “fraud news.”

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CNN, however, criticized the president for the video. "It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters. … Instead of preparing for his overseas trip, his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, ‎dealing with North Korea and working on his health care bill, he is involved in juvenile behavior far below the dignity of his office. We will keep doing our jobs. He should start doing his," the network said in a statement Sunday.

However, Twitter on Sunday told CNN it reviewed the president’s tweet and found it did not violate the company’s rules. According to Twitter, it considered three factors, which are the political context of the discussion surrounding the tweet, several ways of its interpretation and lack of details in the tweet, CNN reported.

Twitter has laid out the guidelines on abusive behavior on its website. “You may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism,” Twitter’s rules say. “You may not incite or engage in the targeted abuse or harassment of others. Some of the factors that we may consider when evaluating abusive behavior include: if a primary purpose of the reported account is to harass or send abusive messages to others; if the reported behavior is one-sided or includes threats; if the reported account is inciting others to harass another account; and if the reported account is sending harassing messages to an account from multiple accounts," the social media company’s rules say.

Furthermore, Twitter’s policy on hateful conduct states: “You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.”

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Trump is known to attack the media and media personalities on Twitter. He made controversial comments June 29 on MSNBC's host Mika Brzezinski. Trump called her “crazy,” “low I.Q.” and said she was "bleeding badly from a facelift." The president was severely criticized for the remarks.

On Saturday, the president defended his social media use in a series of tweets. He said his usage of Twitter is "not presidential" but "modern day presidential."