Secretary of State Mike Pompeo displayed a tiny bit of backbone after President Donald Trump threatened to shut down social media companies for fact-checking his lies.
Trump has been attacking vote-by-mail for weeks by claiming that it’s rife with fraud — even though many red states are also considering expanding absentee voting in the midst of this pandemic. Yet, Trump is only attacking blue states and swing states such as Michigan for pursuing vote-by-mail.
In fact, fraud is very rare in vote-by-mail states. The entire state of Utah, which voted for Trump in 2016, votes by mail, as does the state of Oregon and others.
That’s why Twitter responded to Trump’s tweets by fact-checking them, marking the first time the social media giant has sought to fact-check Trump’s lies.
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Of course, Trump threw a tantrum over it and threatened to shut down Twitter and other social media companies.
Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
….happen again. Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
Just hours later, however, Pompeo posted a tweet condemning “government-imposed Internet shutdowns and other forms of censorship” in direct contradiction of his boss.
The U.S. stands against, and will not tolerate, government-imposed Internet shutdowns and other forms of censorship during or after this pandemic. We join @FO_Coalition’s call to promote and protect #InternetFreedom at all times.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 27, 2020
If the United States truly stands against Internet shutdowns and censorship, that means Trump is making a threat that contradicts the values of our nation, not to mention a violation of the First Amendment.
Twitter has the right to fact-check Trump’s tweets. Every time he lies he violates the platform’s community standards and does harm to the country. Now if Twitter would only delete Trump’s account permanently for smearing MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, that would truly do the world a favor.
Featured image via screen capture
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