Trump Threatens to 'Shut Down' Social Media

President Trump was using Twitter to threaten Twitter, as well as social media platforms generally Wednesday (May 27) after Twitter questioned the veracity of his tweets about mail-in ballots and linked to information about those ballots--health and election disinformation are two focuses of Twitter fact-checking.

The President even threatened to "close them down" over perceived anti-conservative bias. 

Late Tuesday he tweeted his displeasure at the Twitter labeling: 

[embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265427538140188676[/embed]

He continued the pushback in a pair of tweets Wednesday morning (May 27):

[embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265601611310739456[/embed][embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265649545410744321[/embed]

The President also retweeted reports that YouTube had censored speech critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

He appended yet another social media warning to a tweet on yet another tweet attacking mail-in ballots as a way for his opponents to cheat him out of the upcoming presidential election, adding: "Likewise, Social Media [CQ]. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!." 

In an interview with Fox News' Dana Perino, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, asked about the Twitter fact check of the President, suggested his company would keep a hands-off policy toward political speech. "I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldnt be the arbiter of truth of what everything people say online and these platform companies should not be in the position of doing that." 

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.