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Twitter labels Trump’s tweets with a fact check for the first time

The action comes after years of criticism that social media companies have allowed the president to push misinformation unchecked

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May 27, 2020 at 8:07 a.m. EDT
Twitter labeled the president's tweets with a fact check for the first time. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Twitter on Tuesday slapped a fact-check label on President Trump’s tweets for the first time, a response to long-standing criticism that the company is too hands-off when it comes to policing misinformation and falsehoods from world leaders.

The move, which escalates tensions between Washington and Silicon Valley in an election year, was made in response to two Trump tweets over the past 24 hours. The tweets falsely claimed that mail-in ballots are fraudulent. Twitter’s label says, “Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” and redirects users to news articles about Trump’s unsubstantiated claim.