Twitter Places Warning Label on Trump Tweet About Voting by Mail

Twitter on Thursday placed a warning label on a tweet by US President Donald Trump, saying his post included potentially misleading information about the mail-in voting process.

“Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to “voters”, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want. Another election disaster yesterday. Stop Ballot Madness!,” Trump tweeted on Thursday.

The president has in recent months assailed the voting process without evidence, saying it could result in widespread fraud, although millions of Americans, including much of the military, have cast absentee ballots by mail for years without such problems.

The process is seen as a way to limit exposure to the coronavirus, though the system to do so will vary from state to state.

Twitter’s warning label redirected users to a curated page, “Voting by mail is legal and safe, experts and data confirm”, which contained more information on mail-in voting.

The social network has previously attached labels to tweets posted and shared by the president, including adding fact-checking notices on his tweets.

Twitter had faced fierce scrutiny from the Trump administration in May, when for the first time it prompted readers to check the facts in Trump’s tweets about unsubstantiated claims of mail-in voting fraud.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

Is Android One holding back Nokia smartphones in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.