Twitter and Facebook took action to fact-check and restrict President Donald Trump’s false claim that allowing Pennsylvania to count all of its valid votes would lead to cheating and violence.
Trump lashed out over a Supreme Court ruling that allowed Pennsylvania to accept mailed ballots postmarked by November 3 up to three days after the election to make sure every valid vote cast on time would be counted.
“The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one,” Trump baselessly claimed.
“It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws,” he falsely added. “It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!”
To be clear, the president’s warning came in response to a ruling that allowed Pennsylvania to count valid votes.
Twitter, Facebook fact-check:
Twitter restricted comments and likes on Trump’s tweet and blocked it with a label saying that "some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”
If you click to view the tweet, the social network adds a disclaimer urging readers to “learn how voting by mail is safe and secure.”
Facebook added a similar warning, saying “both voting by mail and voting in person have a long history of trustworthiness in the US. Voter fraud is extremely rare across voting methods.”
Social networks defend:
A Twitter spokesperson told The Hill that the tweet was flagged for “making a potentially misleading claim about an election.”
“We will significantly restrict engagements on this Tweet,” the spokesperson said.
Facebook did not comment on the decision but issued guidelines in September vowing to flag any post that “seeks to delegitimize the outcome of the election or discuss the legitimacy of voting methods,” including by “claiming that lawful methods of voting will lead to fraud.”
Both social networks have repeatedly flagged Trump’s repeated lies about mail voting, which has been shown to be safe and secure.
