US elections
Twitter disables, reactivates retweets on US President Trump’s election fraud tweets
Twitter disabled, then reactivated, the options to retweet, like, or reply to US President Donald Trump’s latest election fraud tweets on Saturday.
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“We try to prevent a Tweet like this that otherwise breaks the Twitter Rules from reaching more people, so we have disabled most of the ways to engage with it,” the platform said in a message that appears if users tried to engage with the tweet.
The social media platform shortly after reactivated the options but kept a warning message with the retweet and like buttons: “Help keep Twitter a place for reliable info. Find out more before sharing.”
Users were still allowed to retweet the post but only with a comment. Twitter has also added a label to the recent tweets, as well as older tweets, saying, “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”
A screengrab shows a message that appeared when users tried to engage with President Trump's tweets. (Screengrab)
Trump’s latest tweets alleging voter fraud came after the US Supreme Court rejected a long-shot lawsuit by the state of Texas and backed by Trump seeking to throw out voting results in four states, dealing him a likely fatal blow in his quest to undo his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden.
I WON THE ELECTION IN A LANDSLIDE, but remember, I only think in terms of legal votes, not all of the fake voters and fraud that miraculously floated in from everywhere! What a disgrace!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2020
The decision allows the US Electoral College to press ahead with a meeting on Monday, where it is expected to formally cast its votes and make Biden's victory official.
Earlier Friday, the president called on the nation’s top court to show “great Wisdom and Courage. But in a late-night tweet after the decision he wrote, “The Supreme Court really let us down. No Wisdom, No Courage! He followed with another Tweet calling the lack of legal relief an “embarrassment to the USA.”
With Reuters
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