Trump to face stricter fact-checks as Twitter tightens rules before election

Twitter to crack down on election-related misinformation that could obstruct voters

Trump-twitter-flag-fake-news-AP-twitter Representational image | AP, Twitter

Twitter announced Thursday that it is toughening its policies on information around the elections, which will lead the platform to form new rules that will fact-check President Trump more aggressively ahead of the 2020 elections. The social media platform on Thursday rolled out its new policy via a blog post. The blog post said Twitter will fact-check labels to or hide altogether tweets that contain “false or misleading information that causes confusion” about election rules, or posts with “unverified information about election rigging”.

The move comes a week after Trump, at a campaign rally asked supporters to vote twice—once at in-mail voting and again physically. In the past, Trump has been able to spread misinformation about the elections, thanks to Twitter’s porous and subjective policies. 

In May, however, the company applied a fact-check label to one of Trump’s tweets that contained misinformation regarding in-mail voting, which led to a stand-off of sorts between Trump and Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey. It even led to Trump threatening to threatened to “strongly regulate” or shut down social media. His team had then responded by saying that Twitter is “stifling free speech” and “interfering with the 2020 Presidential election. 

Tweets or posts that have to do anything with election rigging and ballot tampering, and any declarations about election results will be closely monitored and any false information immediately flagged off. 

Last week, when Trump asked supporters to vote twice via Twitter, the micro-blogging platform hid the tweets, while Facebook added a warning label to the post. 

Twitter says the new rules were needed to reflect “the changing circumstances of how people will vote in 2020.” A Twitter spokesman declined to comment whether previous Trump tweets of this nature would have qualified for fact-checking under the new rules. 

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