U.S. President Donald Trump, on Wednesday threatened to “strongly regulate or close down” social media platforms.
The threat came a day after microblogging service provider, Twitter, labelled his tweet on voting by mail as misleading.
“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 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!!!!” Trump said in a tweet on Wednesday.
On Tuesday evening, Twitter placed a warning tag on a post by Trump, and directed the president’s followers to a fact-check page on his claim in the message.
In the tweet, Trump had claimed that voting by mail or mail-in ballots would lead to “substantial fraud”. It read in part: “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 and fraudulently signed.” Under the tweet came a circled exclamation mark followed by the message: “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” in a hyperlink.
The link takes readers to a Twitter’s fact-check page that debunks the claim. “Trump falsely claims that mail-in ballots would lead to a Rigged Election.
“However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud,” the company said on the page. The president later accused the company of interfering in the 2020 U.S. election slated for Nov. 3.
He also attacked Twitter for “completely stifling free speech”, saying he would never let that happen as president. Twitter is Trump’s favorite social media platform, with over 80 million followers.
