Twitter Labels Trump's Tweet For Conveying Misinformation
JAKARTA - Twitter is getting serious about monitoring disinformation and misinformation content. And for the umpteenth time, President of the United States (US) Donald Trump received a warning and a label from Twitter regarding his post which was deemed to convey false information.
Quoted from the Washington Post, Twitter labeled two Trump posts questioning fake ballots and potential election fraud. Especially after the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who announced efforts to increase voting in his region during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There is NO WAY (ZERO!) That Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone .....
- Donald J. Trump (realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
"Twitter is now interfering in the matter of the 2020 Presidential Election. They say my statement about ballots leading to massive corruption and fraud is untrue according to the fact check fake CNN and Amazon Washington Post news," Trump said in a tweet Wednesday, May 27.
In fact, Twitter's 'Fact Check' fact-testing label has been tested since the COVID-19 pandemic. Twitter has also collaborated with a number of fact-finding agencies and the media to deal with posts with potential misinformation.
According to a Twitter spokesperson, potentially misleading tweets will be labeled. Donald Trump is no exception, who is quite diligent in tweeting his activities.
"When users see a tweet from Trump, a link from Twitter is attached to those who want facts and information related to the ballot. Twitter will also curate a collection of related tweets and news articles," Twitter said.
Before Trump, Twitter had also labeled the tweets of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The reason was that the tweets of the two were too heralding about suggestions not to carry out physical distancing and counterfeit drugs related to COVID-19.
Apart from Twitter, the 'fact check' feature is also activated by Facebook, Google and YouTube. This feature also allows social media to filter misinformation and conspiracy theories that netizens often eat.