In a move further demonstrating his love for the autocratic, President Donald Trump has threatened to shut down social media platforms for ‘silencing conservative voices’. Tanzia Haq reports.
President Trump continued to issue thinly veiled threats about Twitter, saying his administration will ‘strongly regulate or close down’ social media platforms for limiting free speech from Republicans.
The threats come after Twitter marked the president’s tweets with a fact-check tab, allowing users to verify the level of accuracy in the messages.
Earlier in the month, Twitter had laid out new ground rules regarding tweets, saying that profiles will be judged on a case by case basis and messages removed if deemed harmful.
Twitter made the decision to add fact-check tabs to the president’s tweets after Trump published two tweets on Tuesday claiming mail-in voting, made necessary due to the coronavirus pandemic, would result in a rigged election.
Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, released a statement late on Tuesday saying that: “Partnering with the biased fake news media ‘fact-checkers’ is only a smokescreen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility,”
The president also tweeted: “Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!”
