WASHINGTON, May 27, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump on
Wednesday threatened to close down social media platforms after
Twitter labelled two of his tweets “unsubstantiated” and accused him
of making false claims.
“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,” Trump tweeted.
Twitter targeted two tweets the president posted on Tuesday in which
he contended without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to fraud
and a “Rigged Election.”
Under the tweets, Twitter posted a link which read “Get the facts
about mail-in ballots” — a first for the social network which has
long resisted calls to censure the US president over truth-defying
posts.
Trump pushed back again on Wednesday saying “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!!!!”
The president also accused social media platforms of interfering in
the last election, saying “we saw what they attempted to do, and
failed, in 2016.”
“We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that happen again.”
The president has long used Twitter as a platform to spread abuse,
conspiracy theories, false information and insults to his 80 million
followers.
Before being elected in 2016, he built his political brand by
supporting the “birther” lie that Barack Obama, America’s first black
president, was not born in the United States and therefore was not
eligible to be president.
And he has recently ignited another storm with an attempted
character assassination of MSNBC TV host Joe Scarborough by spreading
the baseless rumor he murdered an aide.