This Tuesday morning, President Trump took to Twitter and railed against mail-in voting, calling the process “fraudulent.”
“There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent,” Trump wrote. “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 living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one,” he continued. “That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!”
But for the first time ever, Twitter fact checked the President’s claims, adding a links to his tweets that explained how his claims about mail-in voting are unsubstantiated.
When the links are clicked on, they go to a separate page on Twitter that contains the fact check.
“On Tuesday, President Trump made a series of claims about potential voter fraud after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an effort to expand mail-in voting in California during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the fact check read. “These claims are unsubstantiated, according to CNN, Washington Post and others. Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud.”
Twitter pledged to increase the warning labels under false or misleading information on its site but has hesitated to apply their new policies to Trump.
The move comes in the wake of Twitter’s decision not to remove Trump’s tweet about the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis. Trump tweeted several messages promoting a conspiracy theory that Klausutis was murdered by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.
