U.S. President Donald Trump’s favourite social media platform, Twitter, started for the first time on Tuesday fact-checking his posts by applying warning labels to two of his tweets that made misleading claims about mail-in ballots.
In links attached to its labels, Twitter pushed back on several “unsubstantiated” claims made by Trump in the tweets. The links have cited reporting by CNN, The Washington Post, and other news outlets.
Trump’s critics have long called on Twitter to take action against his use of the platform. Of the 18,000-plus false or misleading claims the U.S. president has made as president, more than 3,300 of them were made in tweets, The Washington Post reported.
Later, Trump on Tuesday night accused Twitter of interfering in the 2020 election by “saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect.”
“Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!” Trump added in another tweet.
….Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020