Twitter covered up a tweet sent late Tuesday by President Donald Trump claiming that his re-election bid was "high" and that his political opponents were "trying to steal the election".
We're BIG, but they're trying to steal the choice. We will never allow it. No votes can be cast after the polls have been completed!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 4th November 2020
Twitter said it put the warning on Trump's tweet that provided no support for his claim "because he made a potentially misleading claim about an election".
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The president later repeated the message during a press conference falsely claiming that he had won the election. "This is a scam among the American public," Trump said without evidence. "This is an embarrassment for our country." In some states, the number of votes has been delayed due to the overwhelming number of postal ballot papers submitted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Twitter has flagged and narrowed the reach of tweets that contain unconfirmed or false claims about election fraud. The company captioned several tweets from Mike Roman, campaign leader for the Trump campaign, containing misleading allegations about votes. In a tweet that was accompanied by a note that said, "Find out more about security efforts in the 2020 US election," Roman falsely claims that Democratic election officials are banning Trump election monitors in Philadelphia. "The theft is on!" He tweeted.
As Americans turn to postal ballot papers to cast their votes amid the coronavirus pandemic, it may be unclear who the Tuesday night winners will be. According to CNN, Edison Research, and Catalist, over 100 million Americans voted the day before election day, with those votes representing more than 45% of registered voters in the US. Election officials have announced that it will likely take days to count these votes, delaying the final call for the presidential race and other notable elections.
Formulating Trump's statement, Facebook pointed out that "the final results may differ from the initial number of votes as the election count continues for days or weeks."
Social networks prepared for the possibility that some politicians will try to declare victory before the results are projected. Trump reportedly told his confidants that he would declare victory on election night if it looks like he is ahead, Axios reported on Sunday. Facebook and Twitter have both created new labels to warn users that the votes are still being counted, and both plan to direct users to authoritative information.
Facebook clarified its rule late Tuesday, exempting Trump or anyone claiming victory for a candidate in battlefield states before the votes are counted. The social network told the Wall Street Journal that its ban on premature declarations of victory on its platform should only apply to the result of the presidential election, not to individual states.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CNET's Queenie Wong contributed to this report.
