Just minutes after President Trump baselessly alleged in a Twitter post that Democrats were trying to “steal” the election, the social network hid the tweet behind a message warning that his tweet was “disputed” and “might be misleading.”
“We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election,” Trump tweeted at 12:49 a.m. ET. “We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!”
Contrary to Trump’s claim, there’s no evidence that Democrats are trying to have votes illegally counted in the 2020 election.
Twitter in less than 10 minutes had placed a warning over the president’s post that reads, “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.” The Twitter Safety team said, “We placed a warning on a Tweet from @realDonaldTrump for making a potentially misleading claim about an election. This action is in line with our Civic Integrity Policy.”
Trump, in a separate tweet, also claimed, “I will be making a statement tonight. A big WIN!” For the time being, Twitter has not taken any action on that post. The company had said previously that it would flag any statements by candidates or parties that prematurely declare victory in an election. The U.S. presidential election results in several states as of Tuesday night were still not determined as ballots continued to be counted.
After Trump’s tweet claiming a “big win,” Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said in a Twitter post, “It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare the winner of this election. It’s the voters’ place.”
Trump posted the same messages on Facebook, which appended this label to his post about Democrats attempting to “steal” the election: “Final results may be different from initial vote counts, as ballot counting will continue for days or weeks,” the Facebook message says, citing the Bipartisan Policy Center as a source. Facebook’s labels link to its Voting Information Center hub launched for the 2020 U.S. election.