Trump Tweets Warning To Social Media Platforms

UPDATE 9:30AM May 27, 2020: President Trump warned social media giants Wednesday that the federal government could “strongly regulate” or “close them down” if they continue to “silence conservative voices,” amid a flaring battle with Twitter after the platform fact-checked one of his tweets for the first time this week, reports Fox News.

“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices,” Trump tweeted. “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.”

....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

Earlier Posting...

Twitter Inc. on Tuesday for the first time applied a fact-checking notice to a tweet from President Trump, hours after the social-media company denied a widower’s request to delete the president’s posts circulating conspiracy theories about his wife’s death.

The Wall Street Journal reports the twin decisions are likely to stir partisans on both sides of the political debate, with one arguing Silicon Valley should play a more active role in policing Mr. Trump’s social-media activity, while the other considers such moves akin to censorship.

Twitter applied the fact-checking notices late Tuesday to two tweets from the president about the potential for fraud involving mail-in ballots. With a small label—“Get the facts about mail-in ballots”—and a link to more information, Twitter alerted its users that those claims were unsubstantiated.

The tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots,” a Twitter spokesman said.

Twitter’s move was based on a policy announced earlier this month to apply fact-checking labels about the coronavirus and other disputed issues subject to misinformation, including the election. This marked the first time Twitter has applied the fact-checking label to a message about non-Covid news.

Trump late Tuesday accused Twitter of interfering in the election.

.@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....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

Twitter staff warned Trump’s team previously that a May 20 tweet about voter fraud risked triggering the company to take action, according to a person familiar with the matter. That tweet wrongly said Michigan had sent absentee ballots to people ahead of the primaries. In fact, Michigan had sent absentee ballot applications. Mr. Trump deleted the tweet.

On Tuesday Mr. Trump revisited the voting topic, even as fresh controversy swirled over the president’s tweets falsely suggesting that former lawmaker and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough had played a role in the 2001 death of a congressional aide. Twitter later said it wouldn’t take action on the posts related to Mr. Scarborough.