Trump goes after Twitter again, asks if the micro blogging site ever fact-checked Obama

United States President Donald Trump has yet again targeted Twitter by quoting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who said, "Facebook has a different policy than Twitter and is not an arbiter of truth of everything that people say online". The Facebook CEO had questioned Twitter if it fact-checked former US President Barack Obama, which was quoted by Trump in his tweet later.

READ | Trump Claims PM Modi Not In 'good Mood', Offers To Mediate On India-China Border Row Again

Trump signs executive order regulating social media platforms

Donald Trump signed an executive order to "defend free speech" and protect the country from the monopoly of social media firms. President Trump's decision comes two days after Twitter 'flagged' his tweet for spreading misinformation regarding voting via mail-in boxes.

Addressing reporters at the White House, Trump said, "A small handful of powerful social media monopolies control the vast portion of all private and public communications in the United States. They've had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter, virtually any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences. There is no precedence in American history for so small corporations to control so large a sphere of human interaction."

Targeting Twitter for its selective approach, Trump added, "Twitter now selectively decides to place a warning label on certain tweets in a manner that clearly reflects political bias. As has been reported, Twitter seems never to have placed such a label on another politician’s tweet.  As recently as last week, Representative Adam Schiff was continuing to mislead his followers by peddling the long-disproved Russian Collusion Hoax, and Twitter did not flag those tweets. Unsurprisingly, its officer in charge of so-called ‘Site Integrity’ has flaunted his political bias in his own tweets."

READ | President Donald Trump Says Coronavirus A 'very Bad Gift' From China

READ | Mark Zuckerberg Gets Schooled For Criticising Twitter Over Fact-checking Trump

Twitter flags Trump's tweets

On Tuesday, Twitter flagged Trump's tweets regarding mail-in ballots, calling it 'potentially misleading.' The US President had tweeted: “Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed”.

Shortly after his tweets were flagged, Trump lashed out at Twitter stating that the social networking firm is 'interfering' with the US Presidential elections. Trump went on to threaten that as the President, he will 'not allow' the 'stifling of free speech'. 

Trump's campaign team for the upcoming elections also released a statement explaining that Twitter was trying to stop the President's message go through to the voters.

READ | On LAC Standoff, Indian Troops Following Protocols; Centre Firm On National Security: MEA