Twitter interfering in 2020 election, says Trump after his tweets were labelled as misleading
May 27, 2020
Washington DC [USA], May 27 : US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (local time) hit back at Twitter for labelling his two tweets as misleading, saying the social media platform is "interfering" in the 2020 presidential election and completely "stifling" free speech.
"Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 presidential election. They are saying my statement on mail-in ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post...," Trump tweeted soon after Twitter highlighted two of Trump's tweets that falsely claimed mail-in ballots would lead to widespread voter fraud.
"Twitter is completely stifling free speech, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!" he said.
The message is linked to a fact-checked page the platform had created filled with further links and summaries of news articles.
Twitter said that the move was aimed at providing "context" around Trump's remarks.
But Twitter's decision is likely to raise further questions about its willingness to consistently apply the label to other Trump's tweets.
Twitter said that Trump's tweets about mail-in voting did not violate the company's rules because they do not discourage people from voting. But, the company said, the label offers context surrounding the US President's claims.
"These tweets (here and here) contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labelled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots," Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough told CNN Business in an email.
"This decision is in line with the approach we shared earlier this month," Rosborough said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.