Twitter has taken the unprecedented step of adding fact-check warnings to two of President Trump’s tweets. Why did Twitter act now, and how does it decide when to use such warnings?
FILE - In this Tuesday, May 26, 2020 file photo, President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters during an event on protecting seniors with diabetes in the Rose Garden White House in Washington. On Tuesday, Twitter took the unprecedented step of adding fact-check alerts to two of Trump’s tweets about voting by mail. The next day the president threatened social media companies with new regulation or even shuttering.
ANSWER: Trump has pushed Twitter’s boundaries for years, using it to attack rivals, speak to his base and simply vent. Until Tuesday, he had never faced sanctions — though other world leaders had. Those tweets met specific Twitter criteria for misinformation on certain topics, including the coronavirus, how to vote in elections and the census. There is no such policy for other topics. Earlier Trump tweets about Joe Scarborough, which baselessly suggested the television host and former GOP congressman had committed murder 20 years ago, didn’t fall into a specific misinformation category, which is likely why they remain untouched.
What is clear, Balkin said, is the limit on Trump’s authority to impose his own rules. While the president could ask for an investigation or issue some type of executive order, he can’t override laws written by Congress and rooted in the constitution. But that’s not the point, he said. QUESTION: Trump posted the same claim about mail-in ballots on Facebook Tuesday, but the company has taken no action. Does Twitter’s decision raise the stakes for other social media companies?on its site. The company has a policy against voter interference that includes misrepresenting “the dates, locations, times and methods for voting” among other things, but it hasn’t applied these rules to Trump’s post.
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