Twitter recently made an unprecedented move of adding fact-check labels to Trump tweets that make unsubstantiated claims of fraud related to mail-in voting.
The labels serve as prompts for users to fact-check Trump’s statements about frauds related to mail-in voting. Although Twitter says the labels that say “Get the facts about mail-in ballots.” do not outrightly declarare Trump’s statements as false, the prompt is meant to direct users to news reports that contradict Trump’s baseless allegations.
Twitter, Under Pressure to Censor Trump’s Dangerous Statements
Trump’s favorite social media site has been under growing pressure to apply censorship policies aimed at restraining the U.S. president from spreading unfounded allegations. Where before, Trump’s tweets were generally not taken seriously; many are quite displeased over his latest conspiracy-theory about the death years ago of a staffer, who served MSNBC host Joe Scarborough during the latter’s stint in Congress.
Apparently, Trump’s focus nowadays is in attacking individuals and everything else he considers as serious threats to his re-election bid this coming November; including former President Obama whose endorsement of Joe Biden could greatly impact Trump’s chances of winning.
However, Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough stated previously that Trump’s tweets about Scarborough’s deceased staffer would not be taken down. That is despite the call made by the staffer’s widower to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, asking the removal of the Trump tweets that maliciously suggest the MSNBC host had something to do with his wife’s death. Regarding the matter, the best that Twitter could do was to issue a statement conveying that the company is deeply disheartened by the pain and attention caused by Trump’s tweets.