Trump accuses Twitter of trying to interfere in election
DONALD Trump has accused Twitter of trying to manipulate the November 2020 presidential election and warned of repercussions after the social media platform added a fact-check label to some of his posts for the first time.
The US president stood by his claims that postal ballots could lead to a “rigged election”, the suggestion that triggered the move from Twitter, and accused the company of “completely stifling free speech”.
Mr Trump, opposed to a big expansion of postal ballots, tweeted on Tuesday that “there is NO WAY (ZERO!) that mail-in ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent”, going on to say it could lead to a “rigged election”.
Twitter decided to add a fact-checking link to the two tweets the president sent about the issue. Those who clicked were told Mr Trump had “falsely” claimed postal ballots would lead to a rigged election and that there was “no evidence” such ballots were linked to voter fraud.
Mr Trump hit back by claiming that Twitter “is now interfering in the 2020 presidential election”, repeating that mail-in ballots would lead to “massive corruption” and accusing the company of relying on fact-checkers at media companies he often criticises.
Mr Trump tweeted yesterday: “Twitter has now shown that everything we have been saying about them (and their other compatriots) is correct. Big action to follow.” Twitter faced scrutiny over alleged bias as it emerged that Yoel Roth, its head of site integrity, who announced the fact-checking changes earlier this month, had written critical tweets of the Trump administration.
Mr Roth wrote “actual Nazis in the White House” in a January 2017 tweet, the month Mr Trump took office, and compared the president’s adviser, Kellyanne Conway, to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
Mr Trump’s Twitter feed, a central plank in the president’s communications, has more than 80million followers.
Earlier this month the company announced that “labels and warning messages” could be added to tweets “containing disputed or misleading information” about coronavirus.
It also said in a blog post this month that tweets which have the purpose of “manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes” were not allowed on the site.