The last has not been heard of the ongoing war of words between US President, Donald Trump and Social Media Company, Twitter.
White House Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany disclosed that President Trump plans to sign an executive order on social media after Twitter placed fact checks on some of his tweets.
Recall that on Tuesday, President Trump claimed that California’s move to send mail-in ballots to all voters would lead to widespread fraud, thereafter Twitter put a fact check link on the tweet. The link said “Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” and readers who clicked on the link are redirected to news articles about Trump’s unsubstantiated claim.
The tweets, said Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough, “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.”
This did not go down well with President Trump who then threatened to “strongly regulate” or close down social media platforms.
“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives’ voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free-for-all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, now” he thundered.
Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
Twitter’s actions come as Silicon Valley companies are trying to show how they are prepared to tackle abuse ahead of a consequential presidential election. But they also play into Trump’s election-year agenda, in which he already has started railing against alleged bias by social media companies.
During its 14-year existence, Twitter has allowed misinformation by world leaders and everyday citizens to spread virtually unchecked. Its leaders have long said users would engage in debate on the platform and correct false information on their own.
