Disinformation is the new buzzword for the left to push for more censorship on Twitter. While results from the Iowa Caucus are still being counted, journalists from the left want tweets from the right taken down.
“Trump campaign folks are tweeting veiled suggestions Iowa is ‘rigged,’” tweeted Washington Post senior tech policy reporter Tony Romm. In a piece published at 12:20 am on February 4, Romm wrote that Twitter would not take down these tweets, since they “did not violate its policy against voter suppression.” According to Romm, “experts” say that types of voter suppression “should include social-media content that casts doubt on the legitimacy of an election.”
The instances of “voter suppression” cited included a tweet from Eric Trump saying, “Mark my words, they are rigging this thing... what a mess. This is why people don’t want the #Dems running our county. #meltdown.” Donald Trump Jr. also tweeted, “The fix is in... AGAIN. And we get to watch it play out on live TV. Incredible. #IowaCaucuses.” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted, “Quality control = rigged?”
President Trump tweeted, “The Democrat Caucus is an unmitigated disaster. Nothing works, just like they ran the Country.”
The Washington Post apparently asked Twitter to take down some of these tweets, to which “Twitter also declined.” Tech companies are at fault, according to The Post, because they don’t “take action against outright falsehoods with only limited exceptions, including a category of content it calls voter suppression.”
Radio host and CNN columnist Dean Obeidallah claimed that “Trump is how democracies die” because he called the Iowa Caucus “an unmitigated disaster.” Obeidallah also had a conspiracy theory of his own: Trump and Putin interfered in the caucus together! “If you think Trump or his Russian BFF Vladimir Putin are behind the #IowaCaucusDisaster it's only reasonable given we know both Trump and Russia hate American democracy,” he tweeted.
CNN Newsroom anchor Jim Sciutto tweeted, “Beyond the delay, the most alarming story are coordinated (& false) claims by Trump surrogates the vote is rigged. Beware of more in 2020 w/damaging consequences.” CNN analyst Susan Hennessey responded with a reminder that “one of the pieces of Russian propaganda that Trump embraced most openly in 2016 was that the election was rigged and that he suggested he might not concede if he lost.”
Another CNN commentator, Jess McIntosh, tweeted, “Don’t let Trump use this to undermine the election.” NPR journalist Miles Parks wrote, “Information and elections experts say that lack of info creates a real hotbed for disinformation. We saw a Trump campaign manager push a narrative of a ‘rigged’ caucus without any evidence. Claims like that can go viral if there isn't contrary evidence immediately.”
