Earlier this week, Twitter issued a public apology to the family of a woman who Donald Trump repeatedly insinuated may have been killed by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. Following the public apology, Twitter is now labeling Trump’s tweet with its fact-checking function, a move that Trump has threatened to take action against.
“We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family. We’ve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to Variety in response to Trump’s about Lori Klausutis, a constituent services coordinator who worked in one of Scarborough’s offices during his time as a U.S. congressman. An autopsy revealed Lori’s cause of death to be an undiagnosed heart condition that caused her to faint and hit her head in 2001. Florida law enforcement determined her death to be an accident with no foul play involved.
Twitter gives special exemptions to Trump and other political figures for tweets that would otherwise be violations for regular users, as long as Twitter deems those political posts to be in “public interest.” However, the social media platform was forced to label Trump’s tweets with its fact-checking function for possible “misleading information” after he falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to massive voter fraud this election season. “Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” the message beneath each tweet read. The text links to a curated fact-check resource page that the platform created, which consists of links and summaries of news articles debunking the assertion made in the tweet.
Trump took shots at Twitter on Wednesday, for fact-checking him, even threatening to regulate the site, though it is unclear how he would implement this.
“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.”
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
He then accused the tech industry of interfering in the 2016 election, before repeating his false claims that voter fraud stemmed from mail-in ballots.
….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!!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
“We can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country,” Trump tweeted. “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!!!!”
Twitter has yet to respond to Trump’s latest temper tantrum.
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