President Trump on Wednesday threatened to “strongly regulate” shut down social media companies after Twitter just a day ago tagged fact-check warning label under two of his tweets on mail-in voting.
“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. “We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that…happen again.”
“Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!” Trump continued.
….happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
Later Wednesday morning, Trump added on his threat by promising “big action to follow” against Twitter.
“Twitter has now shown that everything we have been saying about them (and their other compatriots) is correct,” the president tweeted. “Big action to follow.”
The president’s response came after Twitter on Tuesday slapped a fact-check label on two of Trump’s tweets regarding mail-in ballot for the first time in the platform history. The label, according to Twitter is “designed to combat misinformation and unverified claims, linked to a curated page with links and summaries” to offer context to what it views as potentially misleading information, instead of removing the tweets.
Trump wrote in a series of tweets that zeroed in on California after the Republican National Committee (RNC) sued Newsom earlier this week over his effort to expand mail-in voting in California during the coronavirus pandemic.
….living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
Twitter tagged each of the string of Tuesday tweets with a blue exclamation mark with a warning message noting, “On Tuesday, President Trump made a series of claims about potential voter fraud after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an effort to expand mail-in voting in California during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the tag says. It also calls the president’s statements false while redirecting Twitter users to news articles by CNN, The Washington Post, and the Hill, along with a page summarizing the findings of fact-checkers.
According to Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough, the tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.”
Shortly after Twitter added the label, Trump accused the platform of “interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election” by issuing a fact check by “Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post.“ He added that Twitter is “completely stifling FREE SPEECH” and as President, he will not allow it to continue.
….Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
The president’s reelection campaign also seized on the move by Twitter.
“We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message through to voters. Partnering with the biased fake news media ‘fact checkers’ is only a smokescreen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility,” Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement.
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