Twitter has flagged a tweet from Donald Trump for the first time in its history, leading to the US President criticising the social media platform of “interfering in the 2020 presidential election”.
Trump had earlier tweeted that mail-in ballots were “fraudulent” and said “mail boxes will be robbed”.
Under the tweets, there is now a link reading “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” that takes users to a Twitter “moments” page with fact checks and news stories about Mr Trump’s unsubstantiated claims.
There is also a “what you need to know” box highlighting three separate claims about postal voting by the president and why they are incorrect.
There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
Trump reacted by tweeting: “Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election.
“They are saying my statement on mail-in ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post.”
It took 10 hours, Twitter added a link to that tweet with these words: “Get the facts about mail-in ballots.”
That link takes users to a separate page populated by news articles and tweets from journalists and experts refuting parts of the president’s claims.
It features bullet points pushing back on the president’s claims about mail-in voting:
– “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.
– “Though Trump targeted California, mail-in ballots are already used in some states, including Oregon, Utah and Nebraska.”
Trump’s presidential campaign manager Brad Parscale also criticised Twitter.
“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,” Mr Parscale tweeted.
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.https://t.co/oqgTq32KxS
— Brad Parscale (@parscale) May 26, 2020