President Trump is a prolific user of Twitter and has used the platform to do an end-run around legacy media to get his message to the people. He reaches over 180 million people with a tweet. Twitter has enjoyed the benefit of millions of new users that want to read the president’s tweets.
Democrats lean on social media to “fact-check” political ads
But, Democrats in Congress, before the coronavirus hit, have been grilling social media moguls like Mark Zuckerberg and others to crack down on “misinformation” and fact-check because of “Russian” interference.
Maxine Waters bullied Zuckerberg in October 2019, asking him, among other things, if it was true that he planned on doing zero “fact-checking” on political ads? She claimed that Zuckerberg was giving politicians a license to lie. Zuckerberg was in Congress testifying about Facebook’s new cryptocurrency called Libra. It sounds like Waters wanted some quid pro quo. You want Libra, I want you to fact-check political ads.
Twitter decides to jump into mail-in vote debate
Well, Twitter has decided to fact-check…the president. Not the Washington Post, not CNN, but the president. In fact, they used the Washington Post and CNN to fact-check the president. The same news outlets that have been pushing the fake Russian Collusion conspiracy for three years? How about fact-checking that?
But, the Democrats and the left-wing media are arguing for mail-in voting, and Twitter decided to “fact-check” a tweet from the president opposing their pet project.
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
President Trump knows better than anyone else how news outlets manipulate stories and outright lie about him and his administration, so it is particularly egregious for Twitter to be “fact-checking” him on mail-in-voting which is a controversial topic and for which there is plenty of evidence that it can be used fraudulently to change elections. It is really the fact-checkers that need checking.
President Trump did just that and exposed Twitter’s head fact-checker, Yoel Roth, a very vocal opponent of President Trump, who used biased news sources to fact-check the president’s tweet on mail-in-voting.
This person is the “head of site integrity” at Twitter pic.twitter.com/hyZcl5VIe0
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) May 27, 2020
The president’s assertion that national mail-in voting would allow for voter fraud and “ballot harvesting” is supported by evidence, though ballot harvesting was made legal in California before it was used to create a super-majority in California in 2018, effectively making California a one-party state. The Democrats are desperate to get national mail-in voting so that they can ballot harvest nationally.
Executive order removes liability shield for social media
President Trump signed an executive order to remove liability protections from any social media platforms like Twitter, Google, and Facebook, that engage in censoring or political conduct such as Twitter did when it weighed in on the mail-in voting controversy. Essentially, they would be considered as media like the New York Times or CNN, and would lose their “platform” status.
“My Executive Order calls for new regulations under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to make it that social media companies that engage in censoring or any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield.” –@realDonaldTrumppic.twitter.com/glpyQktsyy
— GOP (@GOP) May 28, 2020
Google, Facebook, Twitter pigs eat at the federal trough
Apparently, Facebook, Twitter, and Google receive money from the US government because they are neutral platforms. Why would these incredibly wealthy companies need federal money? Do they really need the money? That money will be withdrawn if these companies continue to censor political speech.
The president also explained why it is important that these companies remain a platform only:
This censorship and bias is a threat to freedom itself. Imagine if your phone company silenced or edited your conversations? Social media has more reach than your phone company…
Watch President Trump explain his executive order: