Trump threatens to shut down social media after his row with Twitter

US President Donald Trump threatened to close social media platforms, due to a dispute with Twitter following the inclusion of the site in a precedent of its kind two of his tweets in the category of misleading tweets.

Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday: "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 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!!!!".

....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

This comes 24 hours after the American President accused Twitter of interfering in the American presidential elections and undermining freedom of expression in the United States.

In what was considered a precedent, the first of its kind, Twitter assumed that Trump's tweet was misleading and incorrect, calling for caution in dealing with it and urging the followers to investigate the facts in tweets published by the American President, warning that his allegations regarding the mail poll are wrong and should be checked.

Trump had published a tweet in which he talked about the possibility of rigging ballot papers by mail, keeping in mind that mailboxes would be stolen, ballot papers would be falsified and even illegally printed and signed fraudulently.

The blue exclamation notification urged readers on Twitter to investigate the facts about the mailing poll and directed them to a page containing news articles and information about the allegations collected by Twitter employees.

Twitter confirmed that this is the first time that a fact-finding notification has been applied to Trump's tweet in implementation of his new policy of misinformation that was launched this month to combat misinformation about the emerging Coronavirus.