Twitter and Facebook continue Trump whack-a-mole with warning labels on his posts encouraging people to vote twice

• Twitter and Facebook appended warning labels to a post by President Trump that appears to encourage people in North Carolina to vote twice, which is illegal.
• Trump said mail-in voters in North Carolina should “see if it was counted” and potentially turn up at the polls too.
• Twitter said explicitly that the post broke its rules and hid the tweet behind a clickthrough notice.
• Facebook did not say the post was inaccurate, but added a label saying postal ballots were historically reliable.
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Twitter and Facebook appended warning labels to social media posts by President Trump on Saturday that appear to encourage North Carolina residents to vote twice.

Voting or attempting to vote twice in North Carolina is illegal.

It is at least the third time one of the major platforms has added warning labels to a Trump post, as tech firms try to check the president’s spread of misinformation.

Trump wrote on both social media platforms: “NORTH CAROLINA: To make sure your Ballot COUNTS, sign & send it in EARLY. When Polls open, go to your Polling Place to see if it was COUNTED. IF NOT, VOTE! Your signed Ballot will not count because your vote has been posted. Don’t let them illegally take your vote away from you!”

Twitter placed the tweet behind a clickthrough notice which read: “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.”

In separate tweets, the company said: “We placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice … Voting twice in North Carolina is illegal.”

The company said it had limited the circulation of Trump’s tweet, but decided not to remove it to enable a discussion.

Facebook was more cautious and did not state that Trump’s post violated any of its rules. It simply added a note beneath Trump’s post that read: “Voting by mail has a long history of trustworthiness in the US and the same is predicted this year,” citing the Bipartisan Policy Center as a source.

Facebook’s softer stance on this Trump post again appears at odds with a previously stated policy to remove posts that encourage voter fraud. The company has previously said it would remove Trump videos that appear to encourage voters to vote twice.

Trump has responded with outrage to tech firms’ previous attempts to fact-check his posts, attempting to target Facebook and Twitter with an executive order that would roll back their online protections.