President Trump Slams Social Media Companies Following Twitter's Decision To Label Tweets With Fact Checks
Donald Trump, along with his ardent supporters slammed social media companies, as they deviated their frustration on a Twitter executive by doling out personal attacks and going toe-to-toe with the social media giant for integrating a fact-check label on the president's tweets for the first time. Without divulging details, the White House informed reporters that Trump is planning to sign an executive order related to social media.
On May 27, the president took to Twitter to share concerns about how Republicans feel social media platforms silence conservatives voices, adding that his administration will either regulate or close them down in a bid to restrict it from doing that. Trump recalled how social media platforms attempted to do the same thing back in 2016 but to no avail, and said they cannot allow a complicated version of that come to fruition.
Warning Twitter about an impending big action, Trump said the social media platform has proven that everything they have been saying about it and the rest of the social media platforms is true. Twitter's unprecedented move comes in the wake of strong criticism that the company is lenient in terms of monitoring misinformation and falsehoods shared by world leaders, created tensions between Silicon Valley and Washington with the election just around the corner.
It targeted two tweets from the POTUS that argued the mail-in ballots are forged. The recently introduced Twitter label encourages users to check out the facts about mail-in ballots while redirecting them to news articles about the president's unproven claim. The company's spokeswoman Katie Rosborough said the tweets comprised incorrect pieces of information regarding the voting process, which is why they have been tagged to provide more details about mail-in ballots.
When someone clicks on the label, the label takes the person to articles by the Hill, The Washington Post, and CNN, as well as a series of selections from these articles and a page that summarizes the results of fact-checkers. The Washington Post report says Twitter's move is part of Silicon Valley companies' display of willingness to deal with abuse before a significant presidential election.
It is worth noting that they are also a part of Trump's pre-election strategy, which involves accusing social media companies of been bias. In 2019, congressional committees organized hearings on the social media companies’ related concerns, and Trump had invited Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey to the White House to tell him his Twitter followers were reducing.
The Department of Justice is also doing its share of fact-finding about tech giants taking advantage of their market power. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the president was planning to set up a White House panel that would investigate complaints of bias against conservatives on various social media platforms, as well as online platforms.