Amidst the much-awaited presidential elections in the US, Twitter has been making the rounds as it had slapped warning labels against the tweets of several Republican officials as well as Trump allies, saying they had had violated the platform’s rules against misinformation and election interference.
The tweets that were slapped with warning labels mostly made claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania. Based on Twitter’s “Civic Integrity” policy, users are ironically not allowed to make claims of voter fraud as that would supposedly be “manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes.”
Even making claims about any potential rigging or ballot tampering is also not allowed, Twitter says.
And when these rules are violated, Twitter may do anything from blocking the account to slapping on a warning label and limiting its reach. In some cases, Twitter may also go to the lengths of completely suspending that account.
Since the past few months, as the election kept nearing, Twitter started tightening the leash around political speech across its platform. Several new warnings and restrictions were put in place for “US political figures (including candidates and campaign accounts), US-based accounts with more than 100,000 followers, or that obtain significant engagement.”
This Tuesday, nine tweets by the Philadelphia Republican Party, one tweet by Stephen Moore, Trump’s senior economic advisor, and at least five tweets by Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day Operations, were all slapped with warning labels by Twitter.
All the aforementioned individuals have tweeted about voter fraud, disallowed poll watching, and other alleged malpractices.
