Twitter’s supercharged form of censorship of President Donald Trump’s tweets is already having consequences for the election.
Trump’s November 2 tweet was censored with an interstitial, or filter, which viewers must click through to read, explaining: “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process. Learn more.” Trump’s Twitter-triggering tweet declared: “The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one. It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws.” Trump’s tweet also speculated that there will be dire consequences for the country: “It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!”
Trump had slammed the “Supreme Court ruling on Pennsylvania's extension for ballot counting,” Fox News summarized. The same article illustrated, thanks to that ruling: “Pennsylvania officials will be able to count ballots received up to three days after the election.”
Even after having clicked the interstitial, users saw Trump’s tweet was still labelled with warnings. “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process. Learn more,” noted the Twitter warning. Another warning appeared below with an exclamation mark saying: “Learn how voting by mail is safe and secure.”
Upon trying to retweet Trump’s tweet, Twitter sends a pop-up that requires the user to click through again to quote-tweet. The pop-up urges the following: “Learn how voting by mail is safe and secure.”
When users click through that pop-up to share it as a quote tweet, Twitter leaves a label beneath users’ posts by default. The label states: “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about how to participate in an election or another civic process. Learn more.”
Essentially, Twitter has prevented Trump’s supporters from being able to demonstrate support for the tweet with “Likes,” and have made it susceptible to being “ratioed” by his detractors. Getting “ratioed,” “[g]enerally speaking, [means] the more replies a tweet gets over likes or retweets, the worse it is,” Merriam-Webster’s Words We’re Watching blog explained.
This form of censorship began in late October when Twitter censored Trump’s October 26 tweet regarding "Big problems and discrepancies with Mail In Ballots," claiming it spread information about the election that "is disputed and might be misleading." For the first time with Trump’s tweets, Twitter made sure users could not share or like the tweet.
“Facebook took similar action, adding a label to Trump's post telling users: "Both voting by mail and voting in person have a long history of trustworthiness in the US. Voter fraud is extremely rare across voting methods,” Fox News added later in its report.
Big Tech has been censoring conservatives in an effort to protect Democratic nominee Joe Biden as the 2020 election approaches.
Big Tech companies recently made headlines for censoring a New York Post article. The shocking revelation released by the Post on Oct. 14, revealed purported emails from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter and reportedly exposed the alleged scandalous dealings of both father and son in the Russia-bordering state of Ukraine.
Twitter responded by disabling the link to the story, claiming: “Warning: this link may be unsafe.” Twitter then censored the Post, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, the Trump Campaign, and even the House Judiciary (a part of the United States government) for sharing the story.
Twitter initially blocked the link completely, but later reversed course after backlash. It also locked the Post out of its account for no less than 17 days. Twitter finally unlocked the Post’s account on October 30.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Twitter: (415) 222-9670, Facebook, Twitter or mail to 1355 Market Street Suite 900 and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
