US president Donald Trump has blasted Twitter for censoring his political tweets, claiming that Twitter as an influential social media platform has become biased, and is working for the Left.
On May 26th, Twitter added a fact-check link to one of Trump’s tweets that criticizes postal voting. The company claimed that Trump had violated regulations on voter suppression.
“There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent,” the tweet said, “Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed” the U.S. president added.
The tweet was targeted at the Democratic Party’s suggestion for a quarantine voting system.
On Friday, Twitter escalated its censorship of president Trump.
The company indicated to its users that one of Trump’s tweets had the potential to worsen Minneapolis’ protests, and trigger increased levels of violence in the wake of the George Floyd killing.
In his controversial tweet, Trump described the mayor of Minneapolis as a “weak radical Left mayor that lacks leadership,” further suggesting that he would send the National Guard to control the ongoing riots in the city.
Trump is no stranger to controversies when it comes to social media posts, especially on Twitter and Facebook.
Many have criticized the president for the “insensitive messages” he has delivered on social media platforms, including slamming American mainstream media like CNN, ABC or MSNBC news networks.
Trump denied he’s spreading misinformation. “Twitter tries to silence conservative voices by using CNN reports to fact-check my tweets,” the president said questioning the sources used by Twitter, accusing the company of being subjected to the Left (Democrats).
The president also indicated that Twitter intends to interfere with the 2020, presidential election.
As the dispute between Trump and Twitter soared up, Facebook was also dragged into this social media war.
While many people expect Facebook to implement a fact-checking policy on Trump, the company, however, doesn’t seem to be planning any changes.
During an interview with the Fox News Channel, Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, contended that social media platforms “should not be the arbiter of truth.”
Zuckerberg argued, “posts and ads from politicians are generally not subjected to fact-checking” a statement that has been seen as directed toward Facebook’s longtime rival Twitter.
On the same day Zuckerberg made the statement, American people took to retweeting the CEO’s opinions on Twitter, to bring about the recently popular “cancel” culture concept against Facebook because of its supposed submission to Trump’s authority.
The different attitudes toward the social media policy on political content can be seen quite clearly when comparing Twitter and Facebook.
While Twitter has decided to decline political ads intended for the platform, Facebook on the other hand, still accepts political commercials, saying that this will help those candidates with smaller budgets to voice their opinions.
As the general election approaches, the issue of the mainstream media’s political bias is sparking debates once again.
It is apparent that no matter which party wins the 2020, election, the news agencies have played an essential role in affecting the results.
