The tensions between US President Donald Trump and social media platforms continued to simmer as Twitter mounted restrictions on one of his controversial tweets while Facebook put labels to the president’s posts that alleged election theft, while the vote counting was underway. “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election,” the message from Trump read, on both social media platforms. “We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!”
Twitter immediately flagged this tweet, saying “some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process”. Justifying its action, Twitter referred to a tweet from the company’s @safety account. “We placed a warning on a Tweet from @realDonaldTrump for making a potentially misleading claim about an election. This action is in line with our Civic Integrity Policy.”
When Trump posted the same message to Facebook, the social networking giant added a label to the post instead of restricting its spread on the platform. The label to Trump’s post noted that counting of votes are yet to be concluded and directed users to the platform’s election information center.
