Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Stands By Decision To Fact-Check Tweets Posted By President Trump

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey used the very social media platform that he manages to double down on the company’s decision to fact-check tweets by President Donald Trump, CNBC reported.

On Tuesday, Twitter took the unprecedented step of adding warning labels to two tweets posted by the POTUS, who is known to use Twitter to advance his agenda and connect with his followers about whatever is on his mind. On Tuesday, what was on Trump’s mind was voting by mail. Several states are currently planning to expand voting by mail in order to make it easier for voters to cast their ballots without having to show up to polling places in person. California, which Trump mentioned by name, intends to send every registered voter a mail-in ballot without requiring the voter to ask for one. The process is intended to spare voters from having to risk contracting or spreading the coronavirus to poll workers or other voters.

Republicans — and Trump specifically — are not supporting the initiative, saying that voting by mail could potentially open the door to voter fraud. Indeed, Trump himself has suggested that Democrats could use voting by mail to “steal” the election. On Tuesday, Trump issued two tweets in which he suggested that California’s plan to expand voting by mail would end in a fraudulent election.

Twitter added statements to both of those tweets.

“Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” the statements read. When users clicked them, they were taken to a website that said, among other things, “Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to ‘a Rigged Election.’ However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud.”

In a series of tweets Wednesday night, Dorsey stood by the decision to add those warnings and the link to which they directed users.

First, Dorsey noted that some voters could be misled by Trump’s tweet into thinking that they’ll automatically get a mail-in ballot without having to register to vote.

“Per our Civic Integrity policy the tweets yesterday may mislead people into thinking they don’t need to register to get a ballot (only registered voters receive ballots). We’re updating the link on @realDonaldTrump’s tweet to make this more clear,” he said.

In a subsequent tweet, he noted that Twitter is not the “arbiter of truth,” but that he does want users to be able to “connect the dots of conflicting statements” so that users can get the facts and make decisions for themselves.

Trump, for his part, is reportedly planning on issuing an executive order regarding social media, as The Inquisitr reported. However, it remains unclear, as of this writing, what that executive order may entail.