Trump tweets threat to shutter social media companies after Twitter warning
U.S. president reiterates his accusations of political bias by social media outlets
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to regulate or shut down social media companies, one day after Twitter Inc. for the first time added a warning to some of his tweets prompting readers to fact-check the president's claims.
Trump, without offering any evidence, reiterated his accusations of political bias by such technology platforms, tweeting: "Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen."
He added: "Clean up your act, NOW!!!!"
....happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!
—@realDonaldTrumpRepresentatives for Twitter and Facebook could not be immediately reached for comment on Trump's tweets. Shares of the companies were down in pre-market trading following his posts.
In the pair of early morning posts, the Republican president again blasted mail-in ballots as being rife with fraud — though there is no evidence that's the case, and many Americans have used mail-in ballots in previous elections. Five states currently use only mail-in voting for all elections.
Trump posted similar tweets about the ballot topic on Tuesday, which had moved Twitter to add an alert, signified by a blue exclamation mark, below the tweets to warn his claims may be inaccurate or unsubstantiated, and direct readers to a page of news articles and information about the topic.
Twitter said it was the first time it had applied a fact-checking label to a tweet by the president, in an extension of its new "misleading information" policy, which was introduced earlier this month to combat misinformation about the coronavirus.
The dramatic shift by the tech company, which has tightened its policies in recent years amid criticism that its hands-off approach has allowed misinformation to thrive, had prompted Trump to accuse it of interfering in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.