Trump accuses Twitter of 'stifling FREE SPEECH' after company adds fact checks to his tweets

A person looks at Trump&#039;s tweets on a computer screen.

(Image credit: AFP via Getty Images)

published 27 May 2020

President Trump on Tuesday night accused Twitter of "interfering" in the 2020 presidential election after the company attached a fact check to two of his tweets that made false claims about mail-in ballots.

Trump declared that mail-in ballots are fraudulent, which led Twitter to include links in the tweets redirecting users to a page with facts on the issue. This was the first time Twitter has labeled Trump's tweets as being misleading, and he was quick to respond, claiming that the company is "completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!"

Twitter did not delete any of his tweets, despite calls to do so by people directly affected by his messages, nor did the company ban his account. In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson said his tweets "contain potentially misleading information about the voting process and have been labeled to provide additional context." Trump dismissed Twitter's fact checking, saying the research was conducted by "Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.