President Trump’s tweet that Democrats were trying to steal the election was immediately flagged by Twitter as “disputed and might be misleading” Tuesday.
Soon after Joe Biden spoke to his supporters expressing confidence in his chances, the president wrote on Twitter, “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!”
Users will first see a warning from Twitter that the post is misleading and will have to click on the post in order to see what Trump wrote.
Trump made a similar post on Facebook, and the company quickly added a label notifying users that votes were still being counted and final results may differ from initial reports.
The president has consistently mischaracterized vote counting as actual voting. He also delivered a speech Tuesday night where he also wrongly classified continuing the vote count as fraud. Officials in several swing states are continuing to count votes that were legally cast on Tuesday and may not finish for a few days, which is not uncommon.
Twitter first started flagging misinformation from politicians this year. The company’s explanation states, “You may not use Twitter’s services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections or other civic processes.”
Twitter previously flagged another Trump tweet on Monday after he wrote that counting Pennsylvania absentee ballots that were dropped in the mail by Tuesday but did not arrive at elections offices for several days as “rampant and unchecked cheating.”