Facebook added a disclaimer to a post that President Donald Trump made on Tuesday in which he suggested that mail-in voting would lead to a “corrupt election,” Reuters reported.
On Tuesday, Trump took to the popular social media platform to address a topic he’s raised frequently in these past few months — the possibility that expanded mail-in voting could open up the 2020 election to fraud.
“Mail-In Voting, unless changed by the courts, will lead to the most CORRUPT ELECTION in our Nation’s History! #RIGGEDELECTION,” the president wrote on Facebook .
The site then added the following disclaimer, asking users to get “official voting info on how to vote in the 2020 US Election at usa.gov” and providing a link that they could click.
Clicking the USA.gov link takes voters to a page that provides information about how to apply for and receive absentee ballots, mail-in options, or vote early if their state allows it. The website also notes that several states have expanded vote-by-mail options lately due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“States are making it easier for citizens to vote absentee by mail this year due to the coronavirus. Every state’s election rules are different. And each state has its own rules for mail-in absentee voting. Many are still in the process of deciding how they will handle voting during the pandemic,” the page reads in part.
Trump, for his part, has steadfastly opposed the expansion of voting by mail, repeatedly claiming that the process will open up the election to fraud. Back in June, NPR News noted that he had made multiple claims about the process without evidence. For example, he’s claimed that ballots would be stolen out of mailboxes; that expanded access to mail-in voting would help Democrats and hurt Republicans, despite supposed proof that the opposite is true; and that foreign countries would print up and send out “millions” of fraudulent mail-in ballots.
“IT WILL BE THE SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES!” he tweeted.
On Tuesday, Trump made the exact same claim, word for word, on Twitter . However, that social media platform did not add any sort of disclaimer. The company said in a statement that the post did not violate its rules about misleading content related to election integrity. As such, there was no need to label or disclaim Trump’s tweet.
Facebook, for its part, last week began adding links to election-related information on all voting-related posts made by federal politicians and political candidates. The platform did not comment on its label applied to Trump’s new post.
