Twitter on Friday was flagged as premature posts referring to Joe Biden as “president-elect,” as the counting of votes continued in the razor’s edge US elections with the Democrat leading Donald Trump in several key states.
Tweets referring to the former vice president as the victor and his running mate Kamala Harris as “vice president elect” were tagged with messages saying the counts were not yet final.
“Official sources may not have called for the fray when this was tweeted,” reads a Twitter post below a post by Democratic Coalition co-founder and podcast host Scott Dworkin using the two titles for Biden and Harris. .
The notice came with a link to information on the status of the election.
Twitter told AFP that the measure was in line with its Civic Integrity Policy and with the position it has taken since the polls closed Tuesday night.
“We will tag the tweets claiming victory that meet our criteria, as both Pennsylvania and the overall presidential race have only been summoned by one source,” said a Twitter spokesperson.
“By our rules, until a second source makes this determination, victory claims must cite a source who made the decision.”
Twitter accounts that qualify for posts to be tagged include presidential campaigns or contenders, as well as accounts in the US with over 100,000 followers or tweets that are massively liked or cited.
Click here for full coverage of the 2020 US Presidential Election
Voting results will be considered official by Twitter when they are announced by state election officials or when calls about a result are backed by at least two national media outlets with independent decision tables, according to the one-to-many messaging service.
Twitter and Facebook have been fighting to flag, mask, and limit the spread of premature claims of victory or false attacks on the voting process since the polls closed Tuesday night.
“Since votes are still being counted across the country, our teams continue to take enforcement action on tweets declaring victory prematurely or containing misleading information about the election in general,” Twitter said.
Trump’s unsubstantiated claims regarding the voting process, as well as premature claims of victory over any of the candidates in the race, have been flagged or masked, with links provided to reliable sources of information.
Twitter’s action made the comments less visible and users looking to read the posts had to click a warning.
.
