A post by US President Donald Trump has been given a fact-check label by Twitter for the first time.
Mr Trump tweeted, without providing evidence: “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.”
Twitter put a warning label in the post and linked to a page that described the claims as “unsubstantiated”.
Mr Trump on Wednesday threatened to “strongly regulate” or even “close down” social media platforms.
He tweeted that Republicans felt the platforms “totally silence conservatives” and that he would not allow this to happen. In an earlier tweet, he said that Twitter was “completely stifling free speech”.
Later on Wednesday he said that Twitter “has now shown everything we have been saying about them… is correct” and vowed “big action to follow”.
It is unclear what regulatory steps the president could take without new laws passed by Congress. The White House has yet to offer further details.
For years, Twitter has faced criticism for not acting on the president’s controversial tweets, which include personal attacks on political rivals and debunked conspiracy theories.
This month the platform introduced a new policy on misleading information amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But recent posts in which Mr Trump – who has more than 80 million followers on Twitter – promoted a conspiracy theory about the death of political aide Lori Klausutis, blaming a high-profile critic, have not received the same treatment.
The notification on Mr Trump’s tweet shows a blue exclamation mark and a link suggesting readers “get the facts about mail-in ballots”.
It directs users to a page on which Mr Trump’s claims are described as “unsubstantiated”, citing reporting by CNN, the Washington Post and others.
The pandemic is putting pressure on US states to expand the use of postal voting because people are worried about becoming infected at polling stations.
In a “what you need to know” section, Twitter writes that Mr Trump “falsely claimed mail-in ballots would lead to ‘a Rigged Election’.”
“Fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud,” it continues.
The company had pledged to increase the use of warning labels about false or misleading information on its site, but has been slow to take steps against the US president.
Mr Trump posted the same claim about mail-in ballots on Facebook, but it is not fact-checked on that platform.
Source:Â bbc.com