Twitter Applies Fact-Check Labels To Trump Tweets For First Time

Twitter labeled two of President Donald Trump’s tweets with a fact-check warning on Tuesday for the first time, prompting the president to accuse the platform of “stifling free speech.”

The social media platform applied the tag on two of Trump’s tweets that made claims, without evidence, that voting with mail-in ballots would be “substantially fraudulent.” The labels say “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” and direct users to a collection of news reports and articles debunking the tweets.

Near the top of Twitter’s fact-check page, a statement reads: “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.”

The president has ramped up his attacks to discredit the integrity of mail-in voting in recent weeks, despite substantial evidence to the contrary.

Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough said the tweets were labeled because they contain “potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.”

Shortly after the labels were added, Trump tweeted claims that the platform was attempting to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.

The platform had rolled out a new policy earlier this month that it would label misleading information about COVID-19. The company said at the time it would potentially expand this effort to other areas.

“Moving forward, we may use these labels and warning...

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