Trump threatens Twitter over fact checks: What’s next?
Associated PressOAKLAND, Calif. — Twitter has taken the unprecedented step of adding fact-check warnings to two of President Donald Trump’s tweets that falsely called mail-in ballots “substantially fraudulent” and predicted a “Rigged Election.” On Wednesday, the president threatened to impose new regulation on social media companies or even to “close them down.” But Twitter’s move and Trump’s reaction raise a host of questions, including why Twitter acted now, how it decides when to use such warnings and what its newly assumed role means for the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Twitter began flagging tweets that spread disputed or misleading claims about the virus with “get the facts” links to more information, including news stories and fact checks. Twitter’s action is “indicative the public outcry reached such a fever pitch that the company feels like it has to take action,” said Jennifer Grygiel, a communications professor at Syracuse University who uses they/them pronouns. Lisa Fazio, a psychology professor and misinformation expert at Vanderbilt University, said the fact-check link is “problematic” because it doesn’t directly dispute false information in the tweets.