Published 13:20 IST, May 28th 2020
Trump accuses Twitter of meddling with US Presidential Election 2020 over fact check row
US President Donald Trump on Thursday, May 28 yet again slammed the micro-blogging site Twitter over flagging his tweets as 'misleading'.
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US President Donald Trump on Thursday, May 28 yet again slammed the micro-blogging site Twitter over flagging his tweets as 'misleading'. Taking to Twitter, Trump accused the platform of doing everything it can to censor the 2020 elections.
The US President stated that if social media platforms censor it, then people will no longer have their freedom and said that he will not let it happen. Further, according to Trump, Twitter had tried to censor the presidential election in 2016 elections as well but had failed.
Big Tech is doing everything in their very considerable power to CENSOR in advance of the 2020 Election. If that happens, we no longer have our freedom. I will never let it happen! They tried hard in 2016, and lost. Now they are going absolutely CRAZY. Stay Tuned!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2020
Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany has announced that Trump is soon going to sign an executive order regarding social media companies. This comes after Twitter on Tuesday labelled tweets from United States President Donald Trump as misleading and highlighted two of his tweets that falsely claimed mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud.
"Get the facts about mail-in ballots," read a message under each tweet. Immediately after this move, Trump accused Twitter of meddling with the US Presidential elections and said that he will 'not allow' the 'stifling of free speech'.
Trump's tweets
With less than six months left for the US Presidential elections, Trump took to Twitter to slam the idea of holding elections through “Mail-in Ballots”. Terming it to be 'Rigged election', he stated that the mailboxes will be robbed and ballots will be forged.
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
Jack Dorsey hits back
Responding to Trump's accusations about the social media site trying to censor the 2020 elections, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that the social networking site would 'continue to point out incorrect information' about elections globally.
In a series of tweets, he justified that the microblogging site's move saying that Trump's tweets on mail-in-ballots could mislead people into thinking that they did not need to register for a ballot which could cause chaos, since only registered voters receive ballots. He also took full responsibility for the move.
Fact check: there is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that’s me. Please leave our employees out of this. We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make.
— jack (@jack) May 28, 2020
This does not make us an “arbiter of truth.” Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions.
— jack (@jack) May 28, 2020
Per our Civic Integrity policy (https://t.co/uQ0AoPtoCm), the tweets yesterday may mislead people into thinking they don’t need to register to get a ballot (only registered voters receive ballots). We’re updating the link on @realDonaldTrump’s tweet to make this more clear.
— jack (@jack) May 28, 2020
13:20 IST, May 28th 2020