Twitter Slaps Labels On Donald Trump’s Tweets Casting Doubt On Mail-In Voting
Twitter slapped labels on more of President Donald Trump’s tweets on Thursday, as he continues to spread misleading claims about mail-in voting.
Trump wrote on Thursday, “Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to ‘voters’, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want. Another election disaster yesterday. Stop Ballot Madness!”
In another tweet, Trump wrote, “The big Unsolicited Ballot States should give it up NOW, before it is too late, and ask people to go to the Polling Booths and, like always before, VOTE. Otherwise, MAYHEM!!! Solicited Ballots (absentee) are OK. @foxandfriends.”
The big Unsolicited Ballot States should give it up NOW, before it is too late, and ask people to go to the Polling Booths and, like always before, VOTE. Otherwise, MAYHEM!!! Solicited Ballots (absentee) are OK. @foxandfriends
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2020
Twitter put a label on the posts, “Learn how mail in voting is safe and secure,” while linking to stories that refute claims that mail-in voting leads to massive fraud. Twitter recently announced policies to flag posts that make “disputed claims that could undermine faith in the process itself, e.g. unverified information about election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or certification of election results.”
In a statement, Twitter Security said, “We’ve added a label to this Tweet for making a potentially misleading statement regarding the process of mail-in voting, and to offer more context for anyone who may see the Tweet. This action is in line with our recently-updated Civic Integrity Policy.”
According to Factcheck.org, nine states and the District of Columbia are mailing ballots to all voters, with no request needed. But it is not a new phenomenon: Colorado, Oregon and Washington are among states that had universal vote-by-mail in place in 2018 and 2016. The ballots are being sent to eligible voters. Other states are preparing for an expanded number of voters casting absentee ballots because of the pandemic, but those are being sent to voters by request.
Trump later complained that Twitter’s trending topics feature only includes bad news about him.
He wrote, “Twitter makes sure that Trending on Twitter is anything bad, Fake or not, about President Donald Trump. So obvious what they are doing. Being studied now!”
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