27th May, 2020
By Taiwo Okanlawon
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to regulate or shut down social media companies.
Trump stated this after Twitter, for the first time inserted a fact check warning for the American President’s tweets, to enable readers to authenticate the veracity of his tweets.
The label, which Twitter has designed to combat misinformation and unverified claims, linked to a curated page with links and summaries of articles describing how Trump’s claims on mail-in ballots are unfounded.
Trump, without offering any evidence, reiterated his accusations of political bias by such technology platforms in a pair of early morning posts on Twitter.
On his verified Twitter account, Donald Trump wrote “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. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016.
“We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that 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!!!!”
….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!!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020