Social media company Twitter has decided to hide a tweet by US President Donald Trump about postal voting for containing "misleading claims".
Twitter argued that claims by President Trump on Sunday that postal voting could encourage fraud and puts users at risk of contracting coronavirus were misleading and could "dissuade voters" ahead of the November election.
Users can still view the tweet behind a disclaimer that says it breaks rules around "civic and election integrity". However, the post cannot be liked, replied to or retweeted.
Trump's Tweet
The US president wrote in a tweet: "So now the Democrats are using mail drop boxes, which are a voter-security disaster. Among other things, they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times."
"Also, who controls them? Are they placed in Republican or Democrat areas? They are not Covid sanitized. A big fraud!" Trump added.
Twitter later placed a warning on the tweet, saying: "We placed a public interest notice on this tweet for violating our civic-integrity policy for making misleading health claims that could potentially dissuade people from participation in voting."
The company wrote: "You may not use Twitter's services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes. This includes posting or sharing content that may suppress participation or mislead people about when, where, or how to participate in a civic process."
Under Twitter's rules, severe or repeated violations can lead to permanent suspension on the platform.
Meanwhile, the same post remains on Facebook with no warning although a link to additional voting information was included on the post, which stated: "Visit the voting Information Center for election resources and official updates."
Twitter-Trump feud
In May, Twitter also hid one of the tweets by Trump from his profile for violating rules about glorifying violence. Instead of deleting the post for violating rules, Twitter replaced the tweet with a warning which can be viewed upon clicking on it.
The warning reads: “Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
The tweets were about Minneapolis City, which has been the venue of consecutive nights of demonstrations following the death of a black man named George Floyd in police custody.
The president tweeted: “I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right…..”
He follows this with the post hidden by Twitter, which reads: “….These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
In late July, Twitter banned Donald Trump Jr., the US president’s eldest son, from tweeting for 12 hours after he posted a video about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine.
The social media firm argued that Donald Trump Jr. violated its Covid-19 misinformation rules by posting the hydroxychloroquine video. Twitter said: “We are taking action in line with our policy.”
