Fake news, speculations, and unproven vote fraud theories continue to emerge on Twitter but as promised by the social media platform, it is doing its best to keep the microblogging site safe from all kinds of falsehood. But still, some people desperately spreading misleading information to disrupt the counting procedure.
After Twitter labeled several baseless tweets by President Donald Trump since the election day, his son, Eric Trump took to the social media platform while many Trump supporters are taking to streets protesting in many cities.
The Falsehood
He was busted for tweeting a fake viral video of what according to him was someone burning dozens of ballots cast in favor of Donald Trump. When millions of Americans are waiting for their voice to be heard and their votes to be counted, Eric Trump retweeted a video that appeared to show a man burning 80 ballots for President Trump in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
However, it did not take much longer to reveal the truth behind the video. The City of Virginia Beach debunked the post stating that in a Tweet, "Those were sample ballots."
In a statement, City of Virginia Beach said on its website that "a concerned citizen shared a video with us that ostensibly shows someone burning ballots. [But] They are NOT official ballots, they are sample ballots." The officials also noted the absence of the barcode markings on those ballots that are present in all official ballots. In addition to the statement, the officials said, "The ballots in the video were sample ballots. Fire investigators are looking into the illegal burning."
Twitter suspended the account which posted the video but Eric Trump, who like his father, spread false claims including that Donald Trump had already won Pennsylvania, has not deleted his own tweet.
Not the President-Elect
Since Tuesday, November 3, along with Twitter, Facebook also has labeled half of Donald Trump's posts because he repeatedly and falsely declared victory and expressed doubts on legal votes counted after Election Day.
As of now, 11 posts made by Trump on both the social media platforms have been labeled by the social media giants that include erroneous claims of victory before any official confirmation and false claims that the election is fraudulent. In some of those tweets, Twitter restricted the like or retweet option and hid the tweets, leaving a message for netizens--"Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process."
In Facebook, it warned the users underneath Trump posts stating that "elections officials follow strict rules when it comes to ballot counting, handling and reporting" or "final votes may different from the initial vote counts"—but the social media platform is still letting people share the post and make comments on it.
