President Donald Trump’s tweet was given a fact-check label by Twitter for the first time on Tuesday May 26, a decision that prompted the US president to accuse the social media platform of meddling in election.
Trump had tweeted “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.” Shortly after the tweet was sent out, a warning label was placed on the post and a subsequent tweet.
Twitter’s notification displayed a blue exclamation mark underneath the tweets, suggesting readers “get the facts about mail-in ballots”. Twitter’s link directed users to a page on which Mr Trump’s claims about mail-in ballots are described as “unsubstantiated”. The social media company cited reports on the issue by CNN, the Washington Post and others.
However President Donald Trump accused Twitter of interfering in the US presidential election scheduled for 3 November 2020 in new tweets. The US President who accused the social media company of “completely stifling free speech”, stated that he will never allow it happen.
Mr Trump’s presidential campaign manager Brad Parscale also criticised Twitter. He wrote;
“Partnering with biased fake news ‘fact checkers’ is a smoke screen to lend Twitter’s obvious political tactics false credibility. There are many reasons we pulled all our advertising from Twitter months ago, and clear political bias is one of them.”
The move marks one of the first cases of the company enforcing its policy of labeling tweets by public officials that may violate its rules. Twitter has long said it may take lesser actions, such as adding those warning notices, instead of taking down posts by politicians because their remarks are of public interest.
