Twitter said Monday that it will not flag President Donald Trump’s tweet about mail-in voting as misinformation. Trump’s morning tweet made similar claims to an earlier one claiming the election would be “rigged” due to mail-in ballots — one that Twitter eventually labeled with a fact-check.
Trump — who has railed against expanding mail-in voting — claimed without evidence in the morning tweet that mail-in voting would lead to a “rigged 2020 election.”
RIGGED 2020 ELECTION: MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES, AND OTHERS. IT WILL BE THE SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2020
Trump also said the coronavirus was being used as an excuse to “cheat” the election.
Because of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, 2020 will be the most RIGGED Election in our nations history – unless this stupidity is ended. We voted during World War One & World War Two with no problem, but now they are using Covid in order to cheat by using Mail-Ins!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2020
But Twitter told Digital Trends the tweets did not violate its Civic Integrity Policy, which states that tweets containing “broad, non-specific statements about the integrity of elections or civic processes (such as unsubstantiated claims that an election is ‘rigged’)” would not be moderated.
A Twitter spokesperson said the tweets “are currently not in violation of the Twitter Rules and will not be labeled” since they don’t reference a specific state’s processes on mail-in voting.
Last month, Trump tweeted: “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent,” while also falsely claiming that mailboxes will be robbed, ballots forged and “illegally printed and fraudulently signed,” and wrongly accusing California of sending ballots to “anyone living in the state.”
That led Twitter to fact-check his tweet for the first time, adding a label linking to facts about voting by mail.
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
Trump responded by threatening to strip legal protections from Twitter and other tech giants. He signed an executive order that urged regulators to alter Section 230, which protects tech companies from being held civilly liable for the content their users post.
During the signing ceremony for the executive order, Trump remarked that he wished he could shut Twitter down.
Trump’s Republican allies and his administration’s Justice Department have also proposed changes to the law designed to combat alleged anti-conservative bias at social media companies. The changes would need to be approved by Congress before taking effect.
Tech companies and advocates said the changes would radically alter the internet as we know it and stifle innovation.
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