A civil-rights organization and a watchdog group are demanding that Jack Dorsey suspend Trump's Twitter account over violations of its civic-integrity policy
- Two national, nonpartisan organizations are calling for CEO Jack Dorsey to temporarily suspend President Donald Trump's Twitter account over multiple violations of the company's civic-integrity policy.
- The president has made various tweets in the past few days that included baseless claims of election fraud and prematurely declaring victory while votes are still being counted in various states.
- Twitter announced well ahead of Election Day that it would add labels to tweets that included misleading content. But the joint letter says that doing so "does not go far enough" as the results of the 2020 presidential election remain unofficial.
- "President Trump's repeated use of Twitter's service to amplify false claims regarding our election stand in deliberate violation of the platforms' Civic Integrity Policy," the letter reads.
A civil-rights organization and a watchdog group are calling for Jack Dorsey to suspend President Donald Trump's Twitter account over what they say are multiple violations of the company's civic-integrity policy.
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Common Cause, two self-described national, nonpartisan organizations, wrote a joint letter Thursday demanding that Twitter do more to prevent the president from posting misleading statements surrounding the 2020 presidential election.
"We fear that in the absence of action by Twitter, the President may be successful in his goal of delegitimizing the integrity of our democratic processes for many, and not just Twitter users but other voters and members of the public, sowing uncertainty about the voting and election process and potentially inciting violence against civil servants or others," the letter says.
It was posted on Twitter by the Lawyers' Committee President and Executive Director Kristen Clarke.
The letter goes on to say that even a 12-hour pause on Thursday "would provide a cooling period to recognize the multiple violations" since their "intensity and frequency" hint that Trump would continue to use Twitter to "promote disinformation in the period ahead."
In a statement to Business Insider, a Twitter spokesperson said the company "can confirm that we received the letter and that we intend to respond."
The letter comes as Trump continues make statements that many — including fellow Republicans and international elections observers — say undermine the US election process, and as Twitter fields criticism for allowing Trump to use the platform to do so.
The letter includes a list of how Trump has violated Twitter's policies since Tuesday — including his baseless claims to have won the electoral vote in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina while votes were still being counted — his false allegations that votes have been illegally deleted or added, and his amplifying of unfounded claims of "surprise dumped ballots."
Twitter announced that it would limit the reach of and add labels to posts that contain misleading content, which it did to five of Trump's tweets on Wednesday. The move was part of a broader initiative to crack down on the spread of misinformation and election interference. But the letter says that that fix is "insufficient" since the president's posts are highly visible regardless of their engagement on the platform.
Trump's campaign has taken issue with the US election since Tuesday, calling for recounts in battleground states like Wisconsin, filing now thrown-out lawsuits in states like Michigan and Georgia over their handling of absentee ballots, and continuing to spread the baseless rhetoric that the election is rigged by Democrats. Trump and his supporters were calling for vote counting to stop in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Michigan, although they pressed for vote counts to continue in Nevada and Arizona.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE,) an international election observers body that monitors elections, said on Thursday that the president's continued unfounded allegations that the 2020 election was fraudulent and his "unprecedented attempts to undermine public trust" are undermining US democracy.
Twitter's civic-integrity policy says that it "may label and reduce the visibility of Tweets containing false or misleading information about civic processes in order to provide additional context."
Twitter said on Wednesday that five of Trump's tweets included "disputed" or "misleading" content and added labels to them. For example, one tweet questioned why he was losing the lead in key states to Democrat challenger Joe Biden after "surprise ballot dumps were counted," a claim that has since been debunked by election officials.
Twitter, as well as Facebook, also labeled Trump's posts on Wednesday when he prematurely declared victory in the election as votes were still being counted.