Trump threatens Twitter with ‘big action’ for flagging his tweets (2nd Lead)

Washington, May 27 (IANS) US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened Twitter with “big action” for tagging two of his tweets on mail-in voting with a fact-checking warning label.

“Twitter has now shown that everything we have been saying about them (and their other compatriots) is correct. Big action to follow!,” Trump said in a tweet.

The label was imposed on two tweets Trump posted on Tuesday, claiming that “mail-in ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent” and would result in “a rigged election”.

It was the first time Twitter fact-checked Trump’s tweets.

Before threatening the microblogging platform with big action, Trump accused Twitter of “interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election”.

“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,” he said.

A Twitter spokesperson, in a statement to TechCrunch, said that the pair of tweets from the President “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labelled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots”.

“Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!” Trump further reacted on Twitter’s action.

When a user browses the tweets in question, a link from Twitter shows “Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” then leads to tweets and articles debunking the President’s statements.

In order to limit the spread of potentially harmful and misleading content, starting on March 11, Twitter introduced new labels and warning messages on some tweets containing disputed or misleading information.

“We will continue to introduce new labels to provide context around different types of unverified claims and rumours as needed,” Twitter said in an earlier statement.

Despite Trump posting harmful tweets for several times, Twitter was yet to flag or curb his tweets.

Conservatives, including Trump, have accused Twitter of portraying bias towards them and curbing free speech in the past.

“The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google,” Trump tweeted earlier this month.

The US President added that the administration was “working to remedy this illegal situation.”

–IANS

na/vd