President Donald Trump on Thursday continued his crusade against Twitter after the social media company slapped a fact check label on two of his tweets earlier this week, tagging a Twitter employee who has been scrutinized by conservative media.
The fact-check marker was applied, for the first time, on a pair of tweets in which Trump said there is “NO WAY” an election with increased voting by mail would be legitimate as states seek to boost mail-in voting amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The label takes users to a Twitter page that calls Trump’s claims about mail-in voting “unsubstantiated” and links to numerous articles debunking his assertions. A Twitter spokesperson told NBC News on Tuesday that the president’s tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots,” adding that the company rolled out a new policy in May to combat misinformation.
“So ridiculous to see Twitter trying to make the case that Mail-In Ballots are not subject to FRAUD,” Trump tweeted Thursday. “How stupid, there are examples, & cases, all over the place. Our election process will become badly tainted & a laughingstock all over the World. Tell that to your hater @yoyoel.”
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Prior to Trump’s tweet tagging him, Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site integrity, was already experiencing backlash, though the company has said no one employee was responsible for the decision to label the president’s tweets.
Soon after the Twitter fact-check, a New York Post journalist posted screenshots highlighting Roth’s years-old anti-Trump and anti-Republican tweets, while senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway mentioned Roth by name on Fox News Wednesday.
Roth had tweeted things such as, “I’m just saying, we fly over the states that voted for a racist tangerine for a reason.” In one tweet, he called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a “personality-free bag of farts.”
Roth currently leads a unit that is housed under Twitter’s Trust and Safety team.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded Wednesday to his employee coming under fire, tweeting: “Fact check: there is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that’s me.”
“Please leave our employees out of this,” he continued. “We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make. This does not make us an ‘arbiter of truth.’ Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions.”
Trump has promised to issue an executive order Thursday aimed at the big tech firms, though details on the order remain scarce. Trump threatened to “strongly regulate” social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook or “close them down,” tweeting that Republicans feel that the companies are silencing conservative voices.
Some prominent Republicans, like Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have suggested making changes to Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act of 1996, which provides those companies with immunity from liability for content users post on their platforms.
Both Democratic and Republican officials overseeing mail-in voting processes say that Trump is dead wrong about the potential for widespread fraud. In recent interviews with NBC News, these officials outlined proven steps — most importantly, signature verification — taken to ensure the integrity of the system.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has tracked documented cases of voter fraud for the past 20 years and found more than 1,200 instances — about 200 of which involve misuse of absentee ballots. In that same 20-year period, about 250 million mail-in votes have been cast.
Trump has used mail-in voting himself, voting absentee as recently as earlier this year in Florida’s primary elections. Meanwhile, amid Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting, his campaign is trying to make it easier for supporters in Pennsylvania to request mail-in ballots for next week’s primary.
