NEW ORLEANS — President Donald Trump is claiming Twitter is censoring free speech after the social media platform placed fact checks on some of his recent tweets.
Regardless of your political leanings, misinformation campaigns are abundant, trying to get your attention. The President’s claims stem from Twitter’s fact-checking on his tweets pertaining to mail-in ballots and fraud.
Following that, the partisan divide truly opened up. One user tweeted Wednesday afternoon: “Fact-checking is not censorship. Trump’s lying needs to be kept in check.”
On Twitter Wednesday afternoon, actor James Woods pointed out that the head of Twitter’s fact-checking team has a history of anti-Trump and anti-conservative tweets.
Ed Chervenak, political analyst at the University of New Orleans, said Trump’s latest swipe at social media drums up true blue and red conflict.
“You look at Silicon Valley — you look at everyone involved in social media — they tend to be liberal, so conservatives are already attacking social media. And so you should expect more of that, particularly with the campaign ahead,” said Chervenak.
In a separate Tweet, President Trump vowed that social media platforms would be strongly regulated or shut down before they can silence conservative voices.
“Certainly there are some First Amendment issues there, that government should not be telling individuals or companies what they can and can’t say,” said Chervenak.
Chervenak says if anything, Twitter has historically allowed bad information to live in its forum. There is a good amount of misinformation on Twitter. A study by the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, published last week, found that nearly 50 percent of the Twitter accounts discussing the reopening of America from COVID-19 were actually automated programs, or bots.
“We’re going to have to be careful about what we believe when it comes across social media. I just think there is no way for them to self-regulate,” said Chervenak.
Chervenak says in fairness, Twitter will now have to fact check Joe Biden. This is an election year after all. Twitter has long been a venue for loud opinions. The question now is, will “facts” be heard over all the shouting?
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