In a first, Twitter labels US President Donald Trump's tweets as ‘potentially misleading’

In a first, microblogging site Twitter on Tuesday (May 26) labeled two tweets from US President Donald Trump making false statements about mail-in voting as “potentially misleading.” The move is significant becuase Twitter has fact-checked President Trump for the first time.

Twitter imposed the label on two tweets President Trump posted Tuesday morning falsely claiming that “mail-in ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent” and would result in “a rigged election.” The tweets posted by President Trump focused mainly on California’s efforts to expand mail-in voting due to the outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19 in the US. On Sunday, the California Governor Gavin Newsom was sued by Republican National Committee over the state’s moves to expand mail-in voting.

According to a Twitter spokesperson, the tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.” 

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

At the top of the fact-check page, Twitter writes “Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to ‘a Rigged Election.’ However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud.”

A Twitter spokesperson defended the move saying it is in accordance with a new policy adopted by the company few days ago in order to limit “the spread of potentially harmful and misleading content” related to the pandemic. 

Responding to Twitter's decision, Brad Parscale, Trump campaign manager, said, “Partnering with the biased fake news media ‘fact checkers’ is only a smoke screen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility.”

Trump hit back at Twitter, saying the company is “now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election” and that the company is “completely stifling FREE SPEECH” in a series of Tuesday evening tweets.

.@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

Notably, President Trump has been attacking Democratic-controlled states like California over the last few days over their efforts to expand mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic.