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Twitter adds label to Trump's misleading tweets about mail-in ballots:
Twitter said Tuesday that it added a label to President Donald Trump's tweets for containing "potentially misleading information about voting processes," a rare move that shows the social media company is taking a tougher stance against misinformation.
It's the first time that Twitter has displayed a label on Trump's tweets.
On Tuesday, Trump tweeted that "There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-in-Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent," a claim that has been debunked by fact-checkers and news organizations. He continues his remarks in another tweet, stating that it will be a "Rigged election."
A label appears under both tweets that states "Get the facts about mail-in ballots." Clicking on the warning notice directs users to a page that states that fact-checkers say there isn't any evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud. Trump also falsely states in the tweets that California will send mail-in ballots to "anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there" when only registered voters will receive ballots. States such as Oregon, Utah and Washington have long conducted elections by mail only, while states such as Nebraska allow any voter to request a ballot and vote by mail without having to provide a reason.
A Twitter spokeswoman said in a statement that the decision is in line with how the company approaches misinformation on its site, which includes adding warning notices and labels depending on the likelihood and severity of harm a tweet could cause.
Twitter's actions against Trump's tweets will also likely increase tensions between the company and conservative users, who allege that the social network suppresses their speech. Twitter has repeatedly denied those allegations. Earlier this month, Trump tweeted that the "Radical Left" is in control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google and said his administration is working on a solution.
In two tweets, Trump accused Twitter of interfering in the 2020 US presidential election.
"Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!," he tweeted.
Also at BBC News, Ars Technica, MIT Technology Review
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:13PM (14 children)
Is it really a violation of your free speech if, when using a companies assets to communicate, they append a correction to your statement?
Is it not their free speech right to say, "no, Mr President, you are wrong."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @02:49PM (12 children)
That's been a complaint from the left for a while, "conservatives want to speak without criticism" they say. Here we have a "fact-check" proven wrong the same week by an arrest for election fraud. Indeed, a bipartisan 2005 commission headed by Jimmy Carter concluded "Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud". What remains is that Twitter used their platform to contradict a sitting president and willfully mislead the public when following the president on Twitter is a constitutional right. [reuters.com]
Twitter should stick their "fact check" as a reply like the legions of full time reply guys already do. A company can't place an incorrect, pseudo-authorative "fact check" on a constitutionally protected tweet and pretend like you're not interfering with freedom of expression. "Congress shall make no law abridging" but the inverse is not true.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by VanessaE on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:03PM (11 children)
Twitter is not a part of Congress, nor any other branch of the US federal government. There is no law being made here, and Trump has no rights under the First Amendment to force Twitter to publish his remarks. Maybe there's some existing federal law regulating the publication of official presidential communications, but the First is not it, and I highly doubt that law applies to media like Twitter (versus, say, the New York Times).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @03:36PM (10 children)
Trump is the sitting president, citizens have a constitutional right to reply to him. Twitter have no explicit right to amend or editorialize his tweets, the Hudson test for "commercial speech" explicitly refers to "communication more likely to deceive the public than to inform it". Twitter and the "fact checkers" represent commercial entities and forfeit constitutional protection when they are wrong (as was the case here). It's very much about the 1st.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:14PM (9 children)
If only you'd put this much effort into the problem of caging children and the like. Nope, you save it for defending Trump spouting fascist lies. Saddest timeline.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:00PM (8 children)
You're referring to the "cages" built by former president Obama in his second term?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @05:35PM (6 children)
Bbbbut OBAMA!
lol, you fools are losing it so hard. I'm not sure what else to add here, your excuses and arguments have become so pathetic in the last year or so.
Anecdotally I think it was around the impeachment hearings. Reality was asserted, and the GOP went full-blown Bond villains. Somewhere in the recesses of your gray matter you know the truth, so this gibbering nonsense is the best your brain can come up with. Shitty attempts at correllation == causation, and other bastardizations of logic and reason. Hell, you can't even hang on to the basic morality of Jesus, so meh to you and your insanity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @06:56PM (5 children)
This. The partisan democrat. Blind to the log in his eye.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @09:07PM (3 children)
Gaslight
Obstruct
Project!
The idiot's way =)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @10:37PM (2 children)
"Trump caged the kids!!" "Obama caged the kids!!" "There's a log in your eye!!!" "Idiot, fool, gaslighter!!"
Two utterly irrelevant neck beards shouting at each other across a picket line.
Don't stop- this is fun.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @11:07PM (1 child)
I enjoy watching their neck flaps quiver in rage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @01:31AM
I thought you were one of those darn kids after me lucky neck meats! They're always after me neck meats dontcha know!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @12:27AM
Well I don't know about you idiots but I'm still pretty enthused about electing a female president, so I'll be voting Libertarian this year.... So now that I've established which political party has my vote in November...
The D team is laying the groundwork for heavy-handed internet censorship in the name of "correcting the record" or someshit. So that's not good.
Then we have the R team building the social base for an actual fascist movement on the one hand (which will give you heavy-handed internet censorship--listen to the Mises Institute), and on the other hand are antics like these that lend legitimacy to the D team's hard-on about controlling social media.
Both of you have logs in your eyes. It's why you can't see what the uniparty is doing to you. Heavy-handed internet censorship is coming one way or another. The frog is almost boiled.
As a test: what should we do with all that content on the internet that's corrupting our youth and turning them into trannies? Shouldn't we fact-check it? Shouldn't we correct the record?
feh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @07:18PM
"Thanks, Obamagate!"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2020, @04:18PM
You have the right to free speech. You don't have the right to use My megaphone.