Twitter now reminds Donald Trump of Biden's poll win every time he claims voter fraud: 'His victory's official'
Twitter has now updated the "disputed" label that it often places on the tweets of President Donald Trump regarding the election results. While it previously said the election was “disputed", it now says president-elect Joe Biden won the polls.
“Following certification of the results of the 2020 US Presidential Election, we've updated our label to reflect the latest information," Twitter spokesperson Nick Pacilio told CNN. The label is not only reserved for Trump's tweets but is placed on all potentially misleading content about the presidential race on the site. “Election officials have certified Joe Biden as the winner of the US Presidential election,” users are now told on the platform. Previously, the same label said, “Multiple sources called this election differently."
The new change was implemented on Saturday, December 19, even as Trump continued to make baseless allegations about the presidential election and voter fraud. The decision to update the misinformation label comes after Biden was certified as president-elect by the Electoral College at the beginning of last week. When one clicks on the new label, which is hyperlinked, a page on Twitter opens carrying Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris' picture atop an article with the title, "Joe Biden officially becomes US president-elect following Electoral College votes."
"Democratic nominee Joe Biden has defeated incumbent President Trump in the 2020 presidential election as he surpassed the 270 Electoral College votes required to win the race, according to projections by The Associated Press, NBC News and other media outlets. The Electoral College vote on December 14 made his victory official after the Trump campaign legally challenged the results in multiple courts. In a speech following the Electoral College vote, Biden said: 'The rule of law, our Constitution and the will of the people prevailed,'" says the article.
Last month, Twitter said that almost 300,000 tweets had the misinformation label slapped on them because they made potentially misleading claims about the election, following Trump getting his followers amped up by unproven claims of voter fraud. There have been critics who had argued that the previous misinformation label did not do enough to counter baseless claims.
Alex Howard, a democratic governance advocate and director of the Digital Democracy Project at the Demand Progress Educational Fund, told CNN: "They're trying to create a both-sides dynamic when false equivalence misleads people".
We reported earlier that Trump has cried foul against social media giants and the power they exercise. The president threatened to veto the National Defense Authorization Act unless the bill includes a measure eliminating a federal law, that is Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. This section protects internet companies from liability for their users’ posts.
Section 230 allows tech giants to moderate users' content without being treated as publishers. To be more specific, the law allows social media giants to vouch for “good Samaritan” moderation of “objectionable” content. This is why we see offensive content on Twitter, Facebook and Google’s YouTube being restricted or taken down at times. The law provides companies to enjoy legal protections where they are not liable to check every content as that increases expenses and creates delays, and can lead to a poor user experience.
