Twitter Suppresses Trump and Family as Electoral Claims Continue to Flow

Twitter gave President Trump and the nation at large plenty of warning that they were not going to allow anyone to claim victory prematurely in this hotly contested election.  Still, the President persisted.

Early in the wee hours of Wednesday, the Commander in Chief addressed a weary and worried nation, from a White House that has been thoroughly barricaded in case of electoral trouble.  During that address, President Trump turned Washingtonian norms on their head once again, as he has done plenty of times in the past four years, announcing that he felt that he had won the not-yet-over election.

The social media world reacted harshly to the announcement, with even conservative personality Ben Shapiro railing against the President.

No, Trump has not already won the election, and it is deeply irresponsible for him to say he has.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 4, 2020

Social media platforms seemed to agree, and went on a bit of a suppression spree anytime the President or his family attempted to declare any victory.

Facebook and Twitter took action on several misleading posts by President Donald Trump about election results as votes rolled in on Tuesday, highlighting both similarities and differences in their treatment of political messages.

Both companies labeled a post in which the president alleged without evidence that his political opponents were “trying to steal the election” and he was “up BIG.” Twitter labeled the tweet as potentially misleading and obscured it from immediate view, among other measures. Facebook labeled an identical post with information that the vote count was ongoing.

Social media companies have ramped up their fight against misinformation, including posts from high-profile politicians, amid scrutiny from civil rights groups, politicians and celebrities. The actions against the Trump posts reflect that heightened vigilance against posts that include premature election results or misleading information.

Twitter would not allow some Trump tweets to be interacted with on the platform, as well as labeling them with a pronounced warning.

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. Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact,…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020

Twitter also took aim at Eric Trump, son of the President, who attempted to claim electoral victory in Pennsylvania via the platform.