Micro-blogging site Twitter flagged U.S. President Donald Trump's tweets as 'unsubstantiated' on Tuesday. In the now flagged tweets, Trump claimed that mail-in-voting would lead to "Rigged Election". His tweets were aimed at California, falsely claiming that the New York Governor Gavin Newson will send ballots to anyone in the state. In reality, they will only be sent to the registered voters.
Twitter posted a link 'Get the facts about mail-in-ballots', under Trump's tweets, in the first such action on Trump tweets. When clicked, it directs users to a statement that the "claims are unsubstantiated". Fact checks and articles by various publications, including CNN and Washington Post, are included along with it.
Although this is the first instance of such an action against Trump, he has used the platform several times to propagate both fake news and wild conspiracy theories.
Obama's Birther Movement
On multiple occasions and on numerous platforms, including on Twitter, Trump fanned conspiracy theories linked to former President Obama's birther movement, which alleged that he wasn't born in the U.S., but in Kenya, and was ineligible to be the U.S. president. To douse these allegations, Obama released his birth certificate which established that he was born in Hawaii in 1961. Trump went on to claim that Obama's birth certificate was "fraud".
Anti-Vaxxer President
Over the years, Trump has alleged a link between childhood vaccination and the onset of autism. In a tweet in 2012, he cited a study that stated that there was a 78 percent increase in autism in a decade [sic]. "Stop giving monstrous combined vaccinations", he wrote. In some later tweets, he implied that "one time massive shots that a small child cannot take" is linked to autism.
Obama Bugged him
In a series of tweets on March 4, 2017, Trump accused Obama of wiretapping his Trump Tower during the 2016 Presidential elections. He provided no evidence to substantiate his claims. In a court filing in September 2017, the Justice Department confirmed that neither it nor the FBI found any evidence to back Trump's claim, The Hill reported.
Jeffrey Epstein's Suicide and Link to Bill Clinton
Right after the suicide of American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Trump retweeted a conspiracy theory that alleged that former President Bill Clinton was connected to Epstein's death. "#JefferyEpstein had information on Bill Clinton & now he's dead", tweeted Terrence K. Williams, a conservative commentator and comedian.
Obamagate
Obamagate is the new conspiracy theory peddled by Trump, under which he alleges that his predecessor Obama and Vice President Biden tried sabotaging his presidency from the very beginning. A reference to Watergate, the biggest political scandal in the U.S. history that brought down President Richard Nixon's presidency in 1974, Trump has called the Obamagate "the greatest political scandal in the history of the United States".
Trump Attacks Joe Scarborough
Recently, Trump accused the former Florida congressman and current MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough of being responsible for one of his staffer's death in 2001. The whole story claims that Scarborough killed a woman with whom he had an affair.
The deceased woman is Lori Klausutis who died of a head injury at Scarborough's office after she suffered from an abnormal heart rhythm, CNN reported. Despite this, Trump tweeted several times on the issue. "Did he get away with murder?" he tweeted referring to Scarborough as "Psycho Joe Scarborough".
Klausutis' widower has written a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, urging him to delete Trump's tweets on his wife's murder, CNN reported. The micro-blogging platform has yet to take action on the issue.
