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MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Thursday, 28 May 2020
Donald Trump threatens Twitter after fact-checks on claims about mail-in ballots.
President Donald Trump as threatened social media companies after a fact check warning was attatched to two of his tweets.(AP: Evan Vucci)
US President Donald Trump is threatening social media companies with regulation or even closure after Twitter added fact-checks to two of his tweets.
Key points:
Donald Trump is claiming social media companies are attempting to "silence conservative voices"
This comes after Twitter added a warning phrase to two of his tweets that called mail-in ballots "fraudulent"
The Ppresident has accused Twitter of "interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election"
The President cannot unilaterally regulate or close the companies, which would require action by Congress or the Federal Communications Commission.
Mr Trump again accused such platforms of bias, tweeting: "Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen."
The President, a heavy user of Twitter with more than 80 million followers, added: "Clean up your act, NOW!!!!"
And he repeated his unsubstantiated claim — which sparked his latest showdown with Silicon Valley — that expanding mail-in voting "would be a free-for-all on cheating, forgery and the theft of ballots".
Mr Trump and his campaign angrily responded on Tuesday after Twitter added a fact-check link under two of his tweets that called mail-in ballots — which are commonplace in Australia and many other countries — "fraudulent" and predicted that "mailboxes will be robbed", among other things.
Under the tweets, there is now a link reading, "Get the facts about mail-in ballots", that guides users to a Twitter "moments" page with fact-checks and news stories about Mr Trump's claims.
Mr Trump replied on Twitter, accusing the platform of "interfering in the 2020 presidential election" and insisting that "as President, I will not allow this to happen".
Twitter and Facebook both declined to comment on Mr Trump's latest claims.
His campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said Twitter's "clear political bias" had led the campaign to pull "all our advertising from Twitter months ago".
Twitter has banned all political advertising since last November.
Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon in regulators' sights
Donald Trump has been synonymous with his tweets since he took office.(ABC News: Jarrod Fankhauser)
In recent years Twitter has been tightening its policies amid criticism that its hands-off approach had allowed abuse, fake accounts and misinformation to thrive.
Tech companies have been accused of anti-competitive practices and violating user privacy.
Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon are facing antitrust probes by the US Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys-general and a US congressional panel.
The Internet Association's interim president and chief executive Jon Berroya said in a statement that online platforms did not have a political bias and they offered "more people a chance to be heard than at any point in history."
The trade group counts Twitter, Facebook and Google among its members.
The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) policy group said "the President is wrong about social media" and said tech platforms were stepping up to fight online misinformation.
Are Twitter and Facebook publishers?
In recent years, critics of big social media platforms have advocated for the need to treat them like publishers.(Flickr: Anthony Quintano)
Mr Trump did not explain his threat on Wednesday, and the call to expand regulation appeared to fly in the face of long-held conservative principles on deregulation.
But some Trump allies, who have alleged bias on the part of tech companies, have questioned whether platforms like Twitter and Facebook should continue to enjoy liability protections as "platforms" under federal law or be treated more like publishers, which could face lawsuits over content.
The protections have been credited with allowing the unfettered growth of the internet for more than two decades, but now some of the President's allies are advocating that social media companies face more scrutiny.
"Big tech gets a huge handout from the Federal Government," Republican Senator Josh Hawley told Fox News.
"They get this special immunity, this special immunity from suits and from liability that's worth billions of dollars to them every year.
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