Social media platform Twitter has placed a fact checking tag next to a tweet by President Trump for the first time under Twitter’s new policy surrounding misleading information on the site.
In February 2020, Twitter announced that many tweets containing misleading, manipulated or synthetic information may now come coupled with a fact checking label urging people to get accurate information.
Throughout 2020, these labels have been applied largely to inaccurate information pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But now, for the first time, the US President Donald Trump has had such a fact checking label applied to his own tweet. In the tweet, Trump claims that allowing mail-in ballots in the 2020 US election will lead to “substantial voter fraud”.
However, a blue fact checking label now exists underneath the tweet that reads “Get the facts about mail-in ballots“. Clicking on that link leads to a variety of links from fact checking organisations, media outlets and experts claiming that there is actually very little fraud associated with mail-in ballots.
At the top of the page is a summary that reads –
– Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to “a Rigged Election.” However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud. – Trump falsely claimed that California will send mail-in ballots to “anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there.” In fact, only registered voters will receive ballots. – Five states already vote entirely by mail and all states offer some form of mail-in absentee voting, according to NBC News.
In the summary, Twitter points out that five states already vote entirely by mail with no evidence of significant fraud, and all states already offer some variant of mail-in “absentee” voting.
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Below that are links to outlets such as The Hill, CNN and The Washington Post, and then another section below points to tweets by what Twitter describes as experts who also point out that there is no evidence to support Trump’s claims.
Trump responded to the move by Twitter by claiming the site was “interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election” and that the site is now “stifling FREE SPEECH“, claiming that he will not allow it to happen.
Despite adding the fact check label to Trump’s tweet, Twitter has said it won’t remove another tweet by Trump promoting a conspiracy theory about the death of Lori Klausutis, despite pleas from her family to do so. Klausutis was found dead in the office of political pundit Joe Scarborough’s office while he worked as a congressman. And despite the death being ruled as not suspicious, Trump has continually implied that Scarborough was involved in her death, despite not being present at the time. Scarborough is a frequent critic of Trump.