Trump Threatens to Shut Down Social Media Platforms After Twitter Fact-Checks His Tweets

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President Donald Trump threatened to shut down social media platforms after Twitter, his communication tool of choice, began fact-checking his tweets. The president suggested that social media “totally silences” conservative voices.

“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,” he wrote. “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 continued his statement by once again disparaging mail-in-voting, which many states are beginning to institute in response to safety concerns amid coronavirus pandemic.

“Just like 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,” he said. “Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!”

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. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020

….happen again. Just like 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!!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020

As PoliticusUSA has previously reported, a recent study from Stanford University’s Democracy and Polarization Lab has found that contrary to the widely-held belief among the GOP that vote-by-mail gives Democrats an advantage over Republicans, vote-by-mail options do not benefit one party more than another.

Nor is this the first time the president has accused Twitter of limiting prominent conservative voices on its platform.

In 2018, the president claimed that Twitter is “SHADOW BANNING prominent Republicans” in response to a news story that alleged accounts owned by Republicans were showing up in a general search of the website but not automatically populating when typing their names in the drop-down bar.

Twitter “SHADOW BANNING” prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2018

Twitter later issued a response, attributing the issue to a platform bug.

“We are aware that some accounts are not automatically populating in our search box, and shipping a change to address this,” the company said at the time. “The profiles, tweets and discussions about these accounts do appear when you search for them. To be clear, our behavioral ranking doesn’t make judgments based on political views or the substance of tweets.”