US Presidential Election 2020: U.S. Democrats want to suspend Trump's Twitter account, Trump tweets restricted

Donald Trump

 

According to foreign media The Verge, the US Democrats called on Twitter to suspend the Twitter account of US President Donald Trump until the election result is released. 

"Now, the President's Twitter account is publishing lies and misinformation at an amazing rate," Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) tweeted on Wednesday. "This is a threat to our democracy and should be suspended until all votes are counted."

"Suspend his account, @Twitter. This is purely false information," Rep. Gerry Connolly also tweeted on Wednesday. "Valid votes are being counted. This is the United States, not Russia."

Other Democrats such as Senator Tom Udall and Representative Nanette Diaz Barragán have not yet reached the point of requesting a suspension, but criticized Trump for spreading election misinformation online.

"Counting votes is not ‘finding’ votes," Barragán said on Twitter on Wednesday. "Maybe you should learn how the election system works, instead of lying/misleading all the time through Twitter."

Twitter has been working hard to curb Trump's efforts to discredit the postal vote, especially after an intense press conference held late Tuesday. Since the press conference, Trump has sent eight tweets, four of which have been restricted by Twitter for violating the citizen integrity policy. These tagged tweets made false claims, implying that Democrats were rigging the election in favor of Joe Biden’s victory.

Donald Trump's tweet

"Last night, I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democratic run & controlled. Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. Very strange, and the "pollsters" got it completely & historically wrong!" Trump said in one of the marked tweets.

A Twitter spokesperson told The Verge that the company warned Trump about this tweet because of "potentially misleading claims about the election." This decision also restricted participation in this tweet. Twitter did not immediately respond to The Verge's request for comment from the Democratic Party to suspend Trump's account.

On Monday, Twitter announced that it will label tweets that make claims about the election results until at least two pre-approved news organizations declare victory. These media include ABC News, Associated Press, CNN, Decision Desk HQ, Fox News and NBC News. As of press time, none of them has declared victory in the presidential election.

As polls closed on Tuesday night, Twitter began to label tweets that misled or prematurely claimed the election results. This includes notifications of tweets from Democratic and Republican leaders. On Wednesday, Twitter tagged a tweet by Wisconsin Democratic Chairman Ben Wikler, stating that Biden won the Wisconsin election. Twitter also tagged a tweet by Senator Thom Tillis, claiming that he had won the re-election campaign.

"Last night, we took quick action to restrict participation in some tweets that may require more context or violate Twitter rules," a Twitter spokesperson said on Wednesday. "Our team will continue to monitor tweets that try to spread misleading information about voting, accounts that engage in bad behavior, and tweets that make premature or inaccurate statements about election results."