Twitter labels Trump tweets encouraging double voting with warning
President Trump’s post on Twitter on Thursday that encouraged mail-in-ballots voters to verify submission of their votes was labeled with a ‘public interest notice’ by the company.
Twitter said that the messages were a stark violation of the company’s policy that frowns at any form of illegal election activities on its platform.
The company, justifying its actions in a tweet, said,
“Our goal is to prevent people from sharing advice about voting twice, which may be illegal.”
One of the President Trump’s Thursday’s posts that have been widely shared as of Thursday morning, reads,
“If it has not been Counted, VOTE (which is a citizen’s right to do).”
In its move to avoid the posts reaching a larger number of Twitter users, the company labeled the post with a warning that says that the tweet “violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity”.
Users could though access the tweet by clicking on the warning.
While further explaining its actions against the posts, Twitter said, “Laws regarding the invalidation of mail-in ballots when individuals choose to vote in person are complex, and vary significantly by state.”
“To protect people on Twitter, we err on the side of limiting the circulation of Tweets which advise people to take actions which could be illegal in the context of voting or result in the invalidation of their votes,” the company added.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, President Trump encouraged North Carolina residents to cast their votes twice, which is against the nation’s electoral laws.
North Carolina has since Friday started to send out absentee ballots, making it the first state to do so in the entire country.
Elections officials were quick to issue a memorandum declaring intentionally voting twice as a felony.
Similarly, the Executive Director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, Karen Brinson Bell, has warned voters to desist from having to verify their votes in person. She asked voters to instead use online trackers to verify their votes.
Kayleigh McEnany, White House press secretary, in an interview on Thursday with Fox News, defended the President’s comments as he stated that the president was not encouraging voters to engage in unlawful activities.
“What he said very clearly there is make sure your vote is tabulated and if it is not then vote,” he said, referring to the President Trump’s comments.
About The Author
