Democratic lawmakers want Twitter to suspend President Trump’s account until all the ballots have been counted in the 2020 presidential election.
Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly said on Twitter that Trump’s claim that he has won Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina before counting is finished is “pure disinformation,” Fox Business reported.
“Suspend his account, @Twitter,” Connolly wrote. “Valid votes are being counted. This is America, not Russia.”
Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline called Trump’s tweet Wednesday “a threat to our democracy.”
Right now, the President’s Twitter account is posting lies and misinformation at a breathtaking clip. It is a threat to our democracy and should be suspended until all the votes are counted.
— David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) November 4, 2020
Politico reported Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris previously called for Twitter to block the president.
Just prior to Election Day, Twitter tightened its policies on flagging misinformation.
The company said Monday that “when people attempt to retweet a tweet with a misleading information label, [they would] see a prompt pointing them to credible information before [being] able to amplify it further.”
“If we see content inciting interference with the election, encouraging violent action or other physical harms, we may take additional measures, such as adding a warning or requiring the removal of Tweets,” Twitter said.
Twitter also said it would label or remove tweets that falsely claim a win for any candidate.
On Wednesday, six of the president’s 14 tweets and retweets were labeled or hidden.
Trump declared victory Wednesday evening in Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan in a tweet that was flagged by Twitter.
It came after members of his team announced lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin alleging vote fraud and planned to request a recount in Wisconsin.
“We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead,” he wrote. “Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact … there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!”
WND reported on the eve of Election Day, Twitter slapped two warning labels on a tweet by Trump criticizing a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision he said would open the door to vote fraud and provoke violence in the streets.
“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,” the president wrote. “It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!”
Trump was referring to a ruling by the Supreme Court in October allowing Pennsylvania election officials to receive ballots up to three days after Election Day. Republican state legislators opposed the change of law as “an open invitation to voters to cast their ballots after Election Day.” Democrats argue postal service delays could disenfranchise voters.
Twitter, which censored New York Post stories presenting evidence of Biden-family influence peddling, put a message in front of Trump’s tweet saying, “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”
Another warning, below the text, countered Trump’s message, inviting Twitter users to “[l]earn how voting by mail is safe and secure.”
Twitter says it has “a critical role to play in protecting the integrity of the election conversation, and we encourage candidates, campaigns, news outlets and voters to use Twitter respectfully and to recognize our collective responsibility to the electorate to guarantee a safe, fair and legitimate democratic process this November.”wnd
