Twitter may not take any action to remove Donald Trump’s vile tweets about Joe Scarborough’s dead intern, but that doesn’t mean they’re just letting him off the hook for anything he says.
Earlier today, Trump tweeted about mail-in ballots facilitating “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…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
….living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
Twitter took it upon themselves to step in and fix that:
New: Twitter has added a "get the facts" link to a false Trump tweet about mail-in voting, which links to a moment refuting his claim. (background here https://t.co/wCQQZtq6vs) https://t.co/P1YAgDzCom
— Ben Smith (@benyt) May 26, 2020
Take a look:
“Get the facts.”
@Twitter has decided to add a link to the tweet of the US President @realDonaldTrump @POTUS
They edited the tweet of the US President ❗️ pic.twitter.com/vebDDNBAQT
— Heather Champion (@winningatmylife) May 26, 2020
Twitter has slapped this POTUS tweet with a fact check that redirects to a headline that reads:
"Trump makes unsubstantiated claim that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud" https://t.co/lmfkwRcBts pic.twitter.com/3PdTSXljwe
— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) May 26, 2020
This is a first.
Is this kosher? @ProfMJCleveland @seanmdav @DrewHolden360 @ChuckGrassley @tedcruz pic.twitter.com/xLdYwQcvQe
— brownOUT (@JHWalz32) May 26, 2020
Except they screwed it up. How can you fact check the future? https://t.co/7VKEVCZZV4
— Blake News (@blakehounshell) May 26, 2020
Why did Twitter wade into the Context Wars with this—a tweet- prediction about future fraud that can't technically be proved wrong?
Twitter has explicit policies that prohibit misleading content abt "when, where, or how to participate in a civic process"https://t.co/jDV3qTemgR pic.twitter.com/QjJz9OBNjP
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) May 26, 2020
Whoever's got the job of labeling "unsubstantiated" claims in tweets is going to be very busy. https://t.co/zy8Q08FmRi
— Ramesh Ponnuru (@RameshPonnuru) May 26, 2020
Are they, though?
Would social media platforms remove claims by Democratic politicians that Michael Brown was murdered?
(I don't think they should, but it gets to the folly of trying to demand a central authority proclaim the Truth)
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 26, 2020
Part of having a liberal democracy is that people are going to say things that are wrong, pretty much constantly! Comes with the territory, and I'd still say it's more desirable than all the alternatives after a couple hundred years of it.
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 26, 2020
This is not a sustainable course of action for Twitter and will create many more problems for them than it solves. Are they going to start fact-checking the Chinese officials on here falsely claiming the coronavirus came from the US? If not, this will look selective and partisan. https://t.co/aLOLWLYdxz
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) May 26, 2020
That’s because it is selective and partisan.
Remember when they fact-checked Obama’s transparently false comments about ObamaCare?
No? They didn’t do that?
— Sunny McSunnyface (@sunnyright) May 26, 2020
I expect to see this sort of thing on every tweet that has anything factually incorrect.
If they do it for one they need to do it for everyone, not just for tweets that get the 'right people' upset ? https://t.co/aBjYOL7PXO
— Persnickety (@Dawnsfire) May 26, 2020
Yeah … they won’t.
You're not going to get your credibility back with Trump. It's fine if you want to drop fact checks on his tweets. Whatever. But we all know this stops with a President Biden or President Ocasio-Cortez. https://t.co/l53e54tfyn
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 26, 2020
Yep.
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional text and tweets.
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