Trump was hit with a Twitter misinformation label, threatens to shut down social media

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

On Tuesday, Twitter hit Donald Trump with one of its new “Misinformation labels“, flagging a tweet regarding unsubstantiated claims about mail-in voter fraud.

The new label will link you to a Twitter page with a list of articles from various sources that go over mail-in ballots, including Trump’s claims that there is “NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.”

He goes on to make even more baseless claims, stating that California “is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there.” They are not, they are sending them to registered voters, because that’s how it works. It should be noted that people have been registered incorrectly, but the number is small.

Screenshot: Twitter

After learning about the label on his tweet, Donald Trump went to Twitter (of course) to say that the company was “stifling free speech” which really goes to show that he doesn’t actually understand what free speech is.

Twitter is a company that can decide what it wants on its platform. It’s not an issue of “free speech.” If Trump doesn’t like it, he should find another social site to spit his maddening thoughts on. Or maybe he should encourage someone to make a new social site. Competition and all of that, right?

It’s honestly surprising that this is Twitter’s first use of the label on his tweets, with recent tweets regarding Joe Scarborough, former US congressman and current MSNBC host, and his ties to the death of a staffer, Lori Klausutis. Twitter has refused to take action, even after Klausutis’ husband, Timothy, sent a damning letter to Twitter asking for the removal due to misinformation.

What do you think? Surprised it has taken Twitter this long to take action against Trump? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• The US government and FBI are pissed at Apple for not coughing up access to a terrorist’s iPhones
• President Trump says Google should be investigated because they’re a “treasonous company”
• Donald Trump is inviting Twitter trolls to the White House for a “social media summit”
• Jack says Twitter employees can work remotely forever so maybe you can too

Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.