President Donald Trump continues to spread nonsensical conspiracy theories as his time in office draws to an end. On Wednesday, he claimed on Twitter that the platform is “shadow banning like never before,” which refers to the notion that the platform punitively “shadow bans” conservative users, meaning intervenes to lower the reach of their posts and accounts. In reality, there is no legitimate evidence of any kind of social media company conspiracy against conservative users. Low levels of positive feedback for right-wing posts don’t automatically entail a conspiracy. Many people just don’t like what the far-right users have to say!
The broad spread of Trump’s own post about imaginary shadow banning seems to at least partially disprove his own point. Twitter, he says, is artificially decreasing the exposure of conservative posts and accounts… but the world can see Trump’s posts on the platform without issue.
Trump nevertheless tweeted as follows:
‘Twitter is shadow banning like never before. A disgrace that our weak and ineffective political leadership refuses to do anything about Big Tech. They’re either afraid or stupid, nobody really knows!’
Twitter is shadow banning like never before. A disgrace that our weak and ineffective political leadership refuses to do anything about Big Tech. They’re either afraid or stupid, nobody really knows!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2020
Again — there is no evidence of some kind of systematic corporate conspiracy against conservative social media users. Drawing a line from people’s distaste for conservative propaganda to an imaginary conspiracy to suppress conservative viewpoints is just laughably self-important. No, conservatives, the fact that you don’t have more “likes” online is not evidence of some kind of nefarious corporate conspiracy! This occasion isn’t the first time that Trump has pushed laughable nonsense about the behavior of social media companies. Trump has even claimed, with no legitimate evidence, that Twitter artificially adjusts its “trending topics” section to make him look bad. In fact, Donald, many everyday Americans just don’t like you!
On Wednesday, Trump also yet again touted January 6 as a day to watch. On that day, Congress will meet in D.C. to certify the results of the electoral college, and Trump still holds onto the delusional idea that there’s a legitimate pathway for him to secure another term as president.
Thus, he tweeted the following:
‘JANUARY SIXTH, SEE YOU IN DC!’
JANUARY SIXTH, SEE YOU IN DC!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2020
When is this embarrassing spectacle going to finally end? Trump also claimed that the “United States had more votes than it had people voting, by a lot,” which is just false, although Trump has pushed the claim before. In a late November fact-check, PolitiFact noted that in “Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the number of registered voters greatly exceeds the number of votes cast” and characterized Trump’s claims to the contrary as “Pants on Fire,” meaning unequivocally completely false. Adding racism to his latest anti-democracy diatribe, Trump also characterized the election as “not even fit for third world countries!”
The United States had more votes than it had people voting, by a lot. This travesty cannot be allowed to stand. It was a Rigged Election, one not even fit for third world countries!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2020
Thank you, a great honor! https://t.co/9GfT5c8hY0
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2020
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump’s nonsense below:
