Tech

Twitter is struggling to keep up with Trump’s voting tirades

Twitter has labeled three tweets from the president since Election Day began.

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Andrew Wyrich

Twitter Label Trump Tweets Election 2020 copy

Twitter has labeled a number of President Donald Trump‘s tweets on Wednesday morning, as he tries to cast doubt on the results of the election.

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Trump, who early Wednesday morning falsely claimed that he won the 2020 election despite millions of votes that have yet to be counted, continued that narrative on Twitter as the country began waking up to the fact that no winner has been called in the presidential race.

The president has tweeted or retweeted five times since his early-Wednesday tweet where he claimed that Democrats were trying to “steal” the election. (That tweet was also flagged by Twitter).

Of those five tweets or retweets this morning, Twitter has flagged two of them.

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In one of the tweets, the president lamented that it was “very strange” that he was losing his lead in states as mail-in ballots continued to be tallied. Election officials have said that counting the votes would take more time because of the influx of mail-in ballots that were sent in because of the coronavirus pandemic.

That tweet now has a warning label on it from Twitter that reads: “Some or all of the content shared in this tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.

Donald Trump Twitter Label Election tweet Very Strange
@realDonaldTrump/Twitter

In another tweet, the president commented on a post from conservative pundit Matt Walsh, who questioned the results of votes being tallied in Michigan.

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Trump wrote “what is this all about?,” referencing Walsh’s tweet. Twitter hid the retweet from Trump, posting the same label as before about it being “disputed” and “misleading.”

Donald Trump Twitter Label Election Tweet What Is This All About
@realDonaldTrump/Twitter

As of press time, though, the president fired off two more tweets, claiming votes against him were made up.

@realDonaldTrump/Twitter
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The second tweet, about making a vote advantage disappear, was flagged.

Twitter is also putting the label on other tweets that are questioning the validity of mail-in ballots.

Around midnight CT on Wednesday morning, Twitter also labeled a tweet from the president.

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In that, the president claimed, without evidence, that Democrats were trying to “steal” the election from him. That tweet got the same label as the ones he posted this morning.

The social media company had said that it would label certain kinds of election content.

Update 12:38pm CT:  The tweet at the center of Trump’s “what is this all about?” post that was labeled by Twitter has been deleted.

Walsh retweeted a post from Matt Mackowiak, a conservative columnist, that showed a map that had Biden gain 100 percent of votes added overnight in Michigan. Mackowiak deleted his initial tweet. In a follow-up, he explained that the numbers he screenshotted were a typo. 

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“This tweet was taken and share honestly. I have now learned the MI update referenced was a typo in one county. I have deleted the original tweet,” Mackowiak tweeted Wednesday morning.

This post has been updated to note Twitter flagged more of Trump’s tweets after press time.


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The Daily Dot