In 2016, Russia spread disinformation across social media, including disinformation about voting locations, registrations, and online voting. Following that election, social media outlet CEOs like Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook appeared in front of Congress to answer charges that they had allowed this propagation of disinformation to continue, compromising the integrity of U.S. elections.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2020
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump tweeted disinformation about voting, just as the Kremlin once paid trolls to do on social media. He was fact-checked by Twitter with a simple link to accurate information that countered Trump’s message regarding the dangers of mail-in voting, dangers that actual data shows are not dangers at all. Despite Trump’s insistence that mail-in voting is rife with fraud, there have been more reported UFO sightings in the past 10 years than cases of voter fraud and the number is not even close.
On Thursday, after a 48-hour tantrum on Twitter, Trump announced the signing of an executive order, tweeting video of himself saying that social media outlets will no longer be allowed to censor tweets on their own, privately-owned platform. He promised that new regulations against “censoring or political acts,” claiming that those on the right have been censored by all social media outlets, ignoring the irony that the video of him saying this was posted and not removed by Twitter.
Thank you Cowboys. See you in New Mexico! https://t.co/aCRJeskUA8
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2020
The announcement came just hours after Trump retweeted video from “Cowboys for Trump” saying that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,” clearly violating Twitter’s terms of service. He spent the earlier part of the week tweeting stories accusing MSNBC host and former representative Joe Scarborough of murdering a staffer despite pleas from the late staffer’s husband for those lies to stop. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey refused to take the tweets down, allowing the president to continue his targeted harassment.
When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2020
By the way, the United States surpassed 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday and this is what the president is focused on the following day.
Twitter was unimpressed with Trump’s announcement. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
