Donald Trump throws psychotic “FREE SPEECH” tantrum after Twitter finally fact-checks him
Twitter finally cracked down on Donald Trump’s false tweets today – not the false accusations of murder, but the false claims about mail in voting – by slapping a mildly worded warning label on them. Most observers didn’t think that Twitter went nearly far enough, but Trump saw it as an affront to his “free speech” and he went berserk accordingly.
Trump thought it was a good idea to tweet this gibberish for all to see: “Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post. Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!”
Three things stand out here. First, “free speech” in the constitutional sense only protects you from government censorship, not from a corporate entity like Twitter. Second, Twitter isn’t even infringing on Trump’s speech; it’s leaving his false tweets intact while simply placing tepid warning labels under them. Finally, Trump is making a threat against Twitter that he can’t possibly act on – which means he’s going to come out of this looking even weaker than ever.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report