SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 7, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Twitter on Friday flagged as
premature posts referring to Joe Biden as “president-elect,” as the vote
count continued in the knife-edge US election with the Democrat leading
Donald Trump in several key states.
Tweets referring to the former vice president with the victor’s title and
his running mate Kamala Harris as “vice president-elect” were tagged with
messages saying counts were not yet final.
“Official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted,”
read a Twitter message below a post from Democratic Coalition co-founder and
podcaster Scott Dworkin using the two titles for Biden and Harris.
The notice came with a link to information about the status of the
election.
Twitter told AFP that the move was in line with its Civic Integrity Policy
and in keeping with the position it has taken since the polls closed late
Tuesday.
“We will label Tweets claiming victory that meet our criteria as both
Pennsylvania and the presidential race overall have only been called by one
source,” a Twitter spokesman said.
“Per our rules, until a second source makes this determination, claims of
victory must cite a source that has made the call.”
Twitter accounts that qualify for posts to be labeled include presidential
campaigns or contenders, as well as US-based accounts with more than 100,000
followers or tweets being massively liked or quoted.
Voting results will be consider official by Twitter when announced by
state election officials or when calls about an outcome are backed by at
least two national news outlets with independent decision desks, according to
the one-to-many messaging service.
Twitter and Facebook have been scrambling to flag, mask and limit the
spread of premature claims of victory or false attacks on the voting process
since the polls closed late Tuesday.
“As votes are still being counted across the country, our teams continue
to take enforcement action on tweets that prematurely declare victory or
contain misleading information about the election broadly,” Twitter said.
Unfounded claims by Trump regarding the voting process as well as premature
claims of victory about either candidate in the race have been flagged or
masked, with links provided to reliable sources of information.
Twitter’s action made the comments less visible, and users seeking to read
the posts were required to click through a warning.