Twitter labels Trump’s tweets for ‘encouraging people to potentially vote twice’

Twitter said Thursday that it labeled two of President Donald Trump’s tweets for “for encouraging people to potentially vote twice” because the remarks violated the site’s rules about civic integrity and elections.

“The laws regarding the invalidation of mail-in ballots when individuals choose to vote in person are complex, and vary significantly by state. Our goal is to prevent people from sharing advice about voting twice, which may be illegal,” Twitter said in a tweet. 

We placed a public interest notice on two Tweets in this thread for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice. https://t.co/UU9kJfqptz

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) September 3, 2020

In the pair of tweets, Trump said that voters should mail in their ballots as soon as possible and “go to your Polling Place to see whether or not your Mail In Vote has been Tabulated (Counted).”

Twitter added a label to the tweets, which stated that Trump violated its rules but that the tweets were left up because of public interest. “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about civic and election integrity. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible,” the label states.

The Trump administration didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told Fox News that Trump wasn’t encouraging voters to break the law but “What he said very clearly there is make sure your [mail-in] vote is tabulated, and if it is not, then vote.”

Trump posted the same remarks about voting on Facebook. The social network doesn’t send posts from politicians to fact-checkers. It started labeling all posts about voting, including Trump’s post, with a link to its voting information center. The label doesn’t mean that the post contains misinformation. Facebook didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether Trump’s posts violated its rules. 

The company said earlier that a news video in which Trump suggests in North Carolina that people should attempt to vote in person after mailing in their ballots does violate its policies against voter fraud and it will be removed unless users are sharing it to “correct the record.” Facebook hasn’t yet identified or removed any of these videos for that purpose.