Twitter is 'interfering' in US election, 'stifling' free speech, alleges Trump
Washington: US President Donald Trump has alleged that Twitter is "interfering" in the US election and "completely stifling" free speech, after the social media network placed a fact-checking warning on one of his tweets for the first time.
On Tuesday, Twitter added a warning phrase to Trump's tweet that called mail-in ballots "fraudulent" and predicted that "mail boxes will be robbed,".
"Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post....," Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
"Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!" he said in another tweet.
Twitter has introduced the new fact checking system to combat misinformation.
"Get the facts about mail-in ballots," read the message beneath each tweet and it took a reader to a new page having links to various news reports from media outlets like The Washington Post and the CNN.
"There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone.....," Trump had tweeted.
Soon thereafter, Twitter posted a message at the bottom of this tweet.
"Get the facts about mail-in ballots," Twitter said.
"Twitter has placed a fact-checking warning on a tweet issued by President Trump in which he claims without evidence that mail-in ballots are fraudulent," NPR reported.
Twitter spokesman Trenton Kennedy told the NPR that while the tweet about mail-in voting does not violate Twitter's rules since "it does not directly try to dissuade people from voting," it does contain "misleading information about the voting process, specifically mail-in ballots."
The Trump Campaign alleged that Twitter was interfering with the president getting his message through to voters.
"We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message through to voters," Brad Parscale, Trump 2020 campaign manager said.
"Partnering with the biased fake news media 'fact checkers' is only a smoke screen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility. There are many reasons the Trump campaign pulled all our advertising from Twitter months ago, and their clear political bias is one of them," Parscale said in a statement.
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SIT initiates probe to identify persons who 'forced' woman to lodge complaint in sexual abuse case
Bengaluru (PTI): The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged multiple instances of sexual abuse by Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna has initiated an inquiry to identify those who allegedly called a woman and "forced" her to register a "fake complaint" against the JD(S) leader, sources said on Friday.
The move comes after the National Commission for Women (NCW) said that one woman complainant who reached out to it claimed she was forced to register a fake complaint against the 33-year-old, who is the Lok Sabha poll candidate for Hassan and the grandson of JD(S) patriarch and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.
Sources said the investigating team headed by Additional Director General of Police B K Singh got to know about the woman only after NCW forwarded the complaint to SIT.
A senior official who is a part of the investigation team said that no one from SIT has contacted her before and she has not filed any complaint with them in this regard.
“SIT has initiated an inquiry into this matter to identify the persons who made phone calls to the woman and accordingly necessary legal action will be taken against such persons,” a source said.
According to the NCW, the woman complainant came to the commission to register a complaint against three individuals, allegedly introducing themselves as Karnataka Police officials and forcing her to allegedly give a false complaint in this case.
“She stated that she is being called by random phone numbers threatening her (telling her to lodge) a complaint. It has come to light that this complainant was forced by a group of individuals to file a complaint, under the threat of potential harassment and false implications. The victim has sought protection for her family’s welfare, underscoring the seriousness of the situation,” the NCW stated.
