Social media platform Twitter added a “Get the facts” link for the first time to a tweet thread on mail-in ballots shared by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, 26 May.
The tweets on mail-in ballots being linked to voter fraud came after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced mail-in voting in California amid coronavirus.
The “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” link is directed to an events page which contains news stories and fact checks about Trump’s unsubstantiated claim. The events page lists the false claims and what is the truth behind them.
For instance, one of the sub-points read, “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.”
While some experts pointed out that mail-in voting is very rarely linked to a fraud, others mentioned that mail-in ballots are used in other states.
Trump Reacts to Twitter’s Move
Later, Trump took to Twitter to state that the social media platform is “completely stifling free speech” and interfering in the 2020 US presidential election.
Regarding Trump’s tweets on mail-in ballots, a Twitter spokesperson told The Quint, “These tweets contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labelled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots. This decision is in line with the approach we shared earlier this month.”
Trump-Scarborough Controversy
Trump had earlier spread baseless rumour about MSNBC host Joe Scarborough that he killed an aide. Klausutis' widower, TJ Klausutis, wrote to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey mentioning that Trump’s tweets violated Twitter’s rules and that the tweets must be removed.
A Twitter spokesperson told CNN Business that the social media platform would not be removing Trump’s tweets.
"We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family. We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
Trump Gets Backlash on Mail-Ballots’ Tweet
Several social media users hit out at Donald Trump for his reaction on Twitter adding a fact check warning to his tweet on mail-in ballots.
Social media platform Twitter, on 11 May, introduced new labels and warning messages to provide additional context to tweets containing misleading information.
It also introduced a curated India-only events page as an experiment, which includes fact-checked content around COVID-19 from the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) verified fact-checkers, including The Quint.
Earlier in March, Twitter had broadened their policy guidance, widening their definition of harm to address and review content that went directly against guidance from authoritative sources of public health information. The platform had said that they would remove content which carried “a clear call to action that could directly pose a risk to people’s health or well-being,” but said they would be unable to take action in cases of “incomplete or disputed information about COVID-19”.
(With inputs from CNN)
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