A tweet from President Donald Trump has been flagged by Twitter for encouraging North Carolina supporters to vote twice, telling then to send their mail-in- battlots early and then show up at polling sites and vote again to ensure that their mail-in votes are counted.
“NORTH CAROLINA: To make sure your Ballot COUNTS, sign & send it in EARLY. When Polls open, go to your Polling Place to see if it was COUNTED. IF NOT, VOTE! Your signed Ballot will not count because your vote has been posted. Don’t let them illegally take your vote away from you!” Trump said in his tweet.
Twitter said it was flagging the post “for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice.”
“To protect people on Twitter, we err on the side of limiting the circulation of Tweets which advise people to take actions which could be illegal in the context of voting or result in the invalidation of their votes,” Twitter said in a post on its @TwitterSafety page.
Twitter said the tweet will be able to remain on the website but engagements with it will be limited, allowing users to quote tweet it but not like, reply or retweet the post.
The label was just the latest in several instances in which social media companies have stepped in to correct the record on Trump’s scattershot remarks on the election that have, at times, said the race will be “rigged” and that mail-in voting is particularly susceptible to fraud.
Twitter also slapped the same warning on a tweet last month saying mail drop boxes used for the upcoming election could lead to fraud.
We placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice. https://t.co/yy674OE26n
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 12, 2020
