US President Donald Trump has accused Twitter of "completely stifling free speech" after the social media company flagged some of his tweets with a fact-check warning.
In a series of tweets, the President had claimed mail-in or postal vote ballots were substantially "fraudulent" and predicted "mail boxes will be robbed", resulting in a rigged election.
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 & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone.....
Twitter later tagged the tweets with a link to "Get
the facts about mail-in ballots", which leads to a Twitter "moments"
page with fact checks and news stories about Mr Trump's unsubstantiated
claims.
A Twitter spokeswoman told The Washington Post the tweets "contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labelled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots".
Mr Trump responded to the move by tweeting that, as President, he will not allow Twitter to stifle free speech.
"Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election," he tweeted.
Why was Trump tweeting about postal ballots?
The
storm of tweets about mail-in ballots followed posts on the the
President's Facebook and Twitter accounts last week that wrongly claimed
Michigan's secretary of state mailed ballots to 7.7 million registered
voters.
Mr Trump, who has more than 80 million followers on the platform, later deleted the tweet and posted an edited version that still threatened to hold up federal funds.
The
more recent tweets singled out the governor of California over the
issue, although the state is not the only one to use mail-in ballots.
Twitter has never fact-checked a President before
Twitter confirmed this was the first time it had applied a fact-checking label to a tweet by the President.
It was part of the company's new "misleading information" policy introduced this month to combat misinformation about the coronavirus.
The
company said at the time it would later extend the policy on disputed
or misleading information about COVID-19 to other topics.
It's
too soon to tell whether this action represents a turning point for
Twitter in its treatment of Mr Trump, but the warning labels suggest the
President crossed a line the company was not willing to move for him.
Mr Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale condemned the response.
So is @Twitter going to start censoring & fact-checking all the numerous blue check mark "journalists" & leftwing activists who falsely claimed that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government & that @realDonaldTrump is a "puppet" of Putin for the past 4 years? 
https://twitter.com/benyt/status/1265388578625986561 …
https://twitter.com/benyt/status/1265388578625986561 …How does Twitter decide what to fact-check?
A Twitter spokesman said the fact-checked tweets had been singled out because they related to election integrity.
The
company had refused to take action on other tweets from the President,
which have fuelled a murder conspiracy theory about the death of a
former congressional staff member two decades ago.
That's despite the woman's widower pleading with Twitter to remove them for furthering the false claims.
Family of woman at centre of a conspiracy theory say Twitter didn't go far enough
On
July 20, 2001, the body of 28-year-old Lori Kaye Klausutis was found in
then-GOP representative Joe Scarborough's congressional office in
Florida.
There is no mystery to Ms Klausutis' death.
Medical officials ruled that the aide, who had a heart condition and
told friends hours earlier that she wasn't feeling well, had fainted and
hit her head. Foul play was not suspected.
Mr
Trump has repeatedly tried to implicate Mr Scarborough — who is now a
political talk-show host on MSNBC and fierce critic of the President —
in the death even though he was in Washington at the time.
"When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida," the President tweeted this month.
"Did
he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave
Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn't it obvious? What's happening now?
A total nut job!"
When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!
He also echoed that "cold case" allegation in a new tweet on Tuesday.
The woman's husband, Timothy Klausutis, wrote to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, pleading with him to delete Mr Trump's tweets.
"There has been a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories since the day she died."
Mr
Klausutis wrote that conspiracy theorists, including the President,
continue to spread "bile and misinformation" about his wife.
"The
President's tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered — without
evidence (and contrary to the official autopsy) — is a violation of
Twitter's community rules and terms of service," he wrote.
Mr
Dorsey didn't reply directly to the letter, but in a statement Twitter
said it was "deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the
attention they are drawing, are causing the family".
ABC/wires
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