Angered by Twitter’s decision to fact-check some of his tweets, President Donald Trump is taking action against social media companies.
A draft of an executive order that Trump was expected to sign on Thursday, obtained by The Hill, showed that he would order a review of laws that protect social media companies from lawsuits.
During a press conference on Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blasted Trump’s decision to sign the executive order.
“What the president is doing is silly. It’s silly. But, let’s say this, it’s a distraction,” she said, adding, “I opened this meeting talking about testing and how it’s going to save lives, open our economy, send our kids back to school, save lives and the rest. We’re talking about Twitter.”
Watch the video below:
Pelosi says Mark Zuckerberg "just panders" to Trump, describes Facebook's business model as "to misrepresent the facts," and then describes Trump's tantrum over Twitter as "silly" and "a distraction" from the public health and economic crises stemming from coronavirus pic.twitter.com/zMoLc13wWc
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 28, 2020
Additionally, Pelosi blasted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and suggested that he is pandering to Trump by not fact-checking or taking down some of Trump’s comments.
“He just panders, tax cuts, no regulation. Our business model is to misrepresent the facts and to be a platform to do that. And to try to hide under freedom of speech which is, of course, a complete violation of everything freedom of speech stands for,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi said she appreciated Twitter’s move to fact-check Trump, but said the standard for fact-checking his tweets appears to be “very selective.”
On Tuesday, Twitter applied its first fact-check to some of Trump’s tweets about mail-in ballots, as IJR reported.
After the move, Trump blasted the platform and said, “[Twitter] is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect,
“Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!” he added.
….Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
And on Wednesday morning, he continued to raise concerns of alleged censorship on Twitter, “Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices.”
He added, “We will strongly regulate, or close them down before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that happen again.”
….happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
Twitter applied its fact-check to a series of tweets Trump sent where he claimed that mail-in ballot could lead to voter fraud.
“There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
Many studies have found that there no evidence of widespread voter fraud related to mail-in ballots.
But on Thursday afternoon, Trump continued to claim that mail-in ballots would lead to fraud, “So ridiculous to see Twitter trying to make the case that Mail-In Ballots are not subject to FRAUD. How stupid, there are examples, [and] cases, all over the place.”
He continued, “Our election process will become badly tainted [and] a laughingstock all over the World. Tell that to your hater [Yoel Roth.]”
So ridiculous to see Twitter trying to make the case that Mail-In Ballots are not subject to FRAUD. How stupid, there are examples, & cases, all over the place. Our election process will become badly tainted & a laughingstock all over the World. Tell that to your hater @yoyoel
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2020
Roth, the serves as the Head of Site Integrity at Twitter, has been the target of some conservatives who claimed he was the individual behind the fact-check.
However, Twitter denied that Roth was solely responsible for the action.
“No one person at Twitter is responsible for our policies or enforcement actions, and it’s unfortunate to see individual employees targeted for company decisions,” a spokesperson for Twitter said.