Reuters
- President Donald Trump has had his election night Facebook posts flagged as misinformation by the social media platform’s fact-checkers.
- Facebook and Twitter are trying to dispel misinformation about the winner of the 2020 election.
- Several key swing states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin are still counting in-person and mail-in votes.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
President Donald Trump, for the second time in days, has posted inaccurate claims about the 2020 election on his Facebook page, leading for the social media platform to issue multiple flags on his offending posts.
On Wednesday morning, as the votes are still being tallied, Trump posted twice on Facebook, copying two of his tweets that were also flagged as “disputed” and “misleading.”
His first post, mirroring his tweets, falsely claimed that he was “up BIG” and that Democrats “are trying to STEAL the Election.”
The Facebook post was flagged with a note that read “Final results may be different from initial vote counts, as ballot counting will continue for days or weeks.” The post linked to Facebook’s fact-checking platform for election misinformation ran in conjunction with the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Shortly after, Trump posted that he “will be making a statement tonight. A big WIN!” The second post included a different misinformation flag, stating that “Votes are being counted. The winner of the 2020 US Presidential Election has not been projected.“
In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said that “Once President Trump began making premature claims of victory, we started running top-of-feed notifications on Facebook and Instagram so that everyone knows votes are still being counted and the winner has not been projected.”
Votes are still being counted in key swing states, and it is too early to make a projection. It is also up to each state to certify the election results. Then, states appoint a number of electors equal to the number of representatives they have in Congress to the electoral college, a system that was devised in the 18th century by the founders of the United States.
This year, states must certify their results by December 8, also known as the “safe harbour” deadline. On December 14, electors will convene in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to formally cast their votes for president and vice president.
Grace Panetta contributed to this report.
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