On Tuesday afternoon, Twitter tried to strike a blow for truth.
On Tuesday afternoon, Twitter tried to strike a blow for truth.
On one of President Donald Trump’s many misleading tweets about mail-in balloting, the social media company added a small tag that read: “Get the facts about mail-in ballots.” Click the link and it takes you to a Twitter page with facts about mail-in balloting — it is not “rigged” as Trump suggests — provided by mainstream media outlets.
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The move by Twitter came after considerable public pressure for it to take action against Trump for a string of vile tweets suggesting that former Florida Rep. Joe Scarborough was involved in the death of a former aide in 2001. (He was not.)
It’s a baby step for the social media giant against the torrent of misinformation spewed by this President on its platform. It also won’t work.
Here’s why:
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1) Trump’s megaphone is simply too big. Twitter isn’t going to remove Trump’s account. Which means that he can use the platform Twitter affords him to savage, well, Twitter. He’s already doing it.
“.@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election,” Trump tweeted Tuesday afternoon. “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. Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!”
On Wednesday morning, Trump upped the ante — suggesting he would (and could) shut down social media sites. “Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices,” Trump tweeted. “We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.
