Twitter Fact-Checks Trump for the First Time Over Mail-In Voting Claims
Twitter applies a fact-checking label to President Trump's tweets for the first time, marking a significant shift in how the platform handles misinformation from world leaders. The labels direct users to verified information after Trump falsely claims mail-in voting leads to substantial fraud.
Twitter adds a fact-checking label to two tweets from President Donald Trump that falsely claim mail-in voting is substantially fraudulent and leads to a rigged election. This action marks the first time the platform applies this type of warning label to the president's account, directing users to a curated page with third-party fact-checks to get the facts about mail-in ballots.
The platform introduces these specific warning labels earlier in May to combat false or misleading information from world leaders, though it primarily uses them up to this point for covid-19 related misinformation. Twitter previously avoids enforcing its rules against Trump's account by relying on loopholes regarding newsworthiness and exceptions for government entities.
This milestone enforcement comes as Trump posts several other potentially rule-breaking tweets about elections, including false claims about illegal ballots in Nevada and threats to withhold funding from states that expand mail-in voting. The ongoing covid-19 infodemic forces Twitter and other major social media platforms to reevaluate and change how they moderate potentially dangerous misinformation from high-profile political figures.