Twitter issued a fact check of some of Donald Trump’s tweets on Tuesday, marking the first time the United States (U.S.) president’s favoured social media platform has pushed back against him spreading falsehoods.
The move, which almost immediately heightened tensions between Trump and the social media giant, came in the form of a label under two of the president’s tweets, which claimed that mail-in voter ballots are subject to extreme fraud.
The label says “Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” and then redirects users to news articles and a bulleted list refuting Trump’s claims.
Shortly after Twitter issued the fact check, the president accused the company of “interfering” in the November presidential election and impinging on free speech.
“Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!” he tweeted while doubling down on voter fraud claims.
It is unclear how Twitter will treat Trump’s future tweets that promote false information.
On Tuesday, Trump issued separate tweets promoting a baseless conspiracy theory about Joe Scarborough, a liberal television news host and former congressman, which were not fact-checked by Twitter.
Nick Pacilio, a Twitter spokesman, would not comment on whether the company will continue to fact-check Trump’s tweets, saying the label is used “based on what people tweet.”
Twitter has faced a growing backlash for giving the president a massive platform to spread false information.
Trump, who has more than 80 million Twitter followers, says his use of social media is essential to bypass what he sees as a biased media establishment.
“Partnering with biased fake news ‘fact checkers’ is a smoke screen to lend Twitter’s obvious political tactics false credibility,” Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement responding to Twitter flagging the president’s tweets.
“There are many reasons we pulled all our advertising from Twitter months ago, and clear political bias is one of them,” Parscale added.
The president has increasingly claimed that mail-in ballots are subject to high rates of fraud at at time when some states are increasing access to postal voting to protect public health ahead of the November presidential elections.
Election law experts say there is little evidence of increased fraud in mail-in ballots, as general voter fraud remains extremely low.
Republicans have long pushed to tighten the process for voter registration as Democrats have sought to expand voter accessibility.
Some studies show increased voter turnout is a boon for Democratic candidates.
In June of last year, Twitter said that it would mark tweets deemed to be in the public interest that violate its policies on such things as abusive behaviour and public safety.
Trump accused Twitter of interfering in the 2020 U.S. election scheduled for November 3 after the microblogging service provider tagged his tweet as misleading.
Trump also lashed out at the company for “completely stifling free speech”, saying he would never let that happen as president.
“@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.
Earlier on Tuesday, Twitter labelled a post by Trump as misleading, and directed the president’s followers to a fact-check page on the post.
In the tweet, Trump had claimed that voting by mail or mail-in ballots would lead to “substantial fraud”.
It read in part: “ 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 and fraudulently signed.”
Under the tweet came a circled exclamation mark followed by the message: “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” in a hyperlink.
The link takes readers to a Twitter fact-check page that debunks the claim.
“Trump falsely claims 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,” the company said.
The move came after Twitter turned down a widower’s request to delete “horrifying lies” told by the president in a tweet about the death of his wife.
Rather, the social media giant, which had promised to warn its users about false or misleading messages posted on the platform, resorted to the use of the label on Trump.
Trump’s claim on the mail-in ballots followed his attacks, over the weekend, on the use of the voting method by several states, including California.
The states say they will use that option in November to prevent a second wave of the coronavirus disease that has taken a heavy toll on the country.
