Trump and Twitter go to war over fact-checking
President threatens social media after false tweets are flagged
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump last night threatened social media companies with new regulation or even shutdown after Twitter added fact checks to two of his tweets.
The historically prolific tweeter of political barbs and blasts turned to his Twitter account to tweet his threats.
However, the president can not unilaterally regulate or close the companies, and any effort would likely require action by Congress.
His administration has shelved a proposed executive order empowering the Federal Communications Commission to regulate technology companies, citing concerns it wouldn’t pass legal muster.
But that didn’t stop Mr Trump from angrily issuing strong warnings.
Tech giants “silence conservative voices,” he claimed on Twitter early yesterday. “We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.”
Later, also on Twitter, he threatened, “Big Action to follow.”
Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that Mr Trump would sign an executive order relating to social media companies but provided no further details.
White House strategic communications director Alyssa Farah said Trump would sign it today.
The threats came after Twitter slapped a fact-check label on President Donald Trump’s tweets for the first time – a response to long-standing criticism that the company is too hands-off when policing misinformation and falsehoods from world leaders.
The move, which escalates tensions between Washington and Silicon Valley in an election year, was made in response to two tweets by Mr Trump over the past 24 hours.
The tweets falsely claimed that mail-in ballots are fraudulent. Twitter’s label says, “get the facts about mail-in ballots”, and redirects users to news articles about Mr Trump’s unsubstantiated claim.
The tweets, said Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough, “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labelled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots”.
The label directs users to articles by CNN, ‘The Washington Post’ and ‘The Hill’, along with selections from the articles and a page of the findings of fact-checkers.
Twitter’s action quickly drew backlash from Mr Trump and his supporters.
Twitter “is now interfering in the 2020 presidential election”, the president tweeted.
“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.”
Yesterday, Mr Trump railed on social media and repeated his mail-in voting claims.
“Republicans feel that social media platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that happen again,” he tweeted.
“Just like we can’t let largescale 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 !!!! ”
For its 14-year existence, Twitter has allowed misinformation by world leaders and everyday citizens to spread virtually unchecked.
Its leaders have long said users would engage in debate on the platform and correct false information on their own.
But Mr Trump has made many false claims on social media, particularly on Twitter, and has attacked people in ways that critics have argued could violate company policies on harassment and bullying.
Twitter is debating whether to take action on the Joe Scarborough tweets