Twitter reported as premature posts referring to Joe Biden as “president-elect”
San Francisco:
Twitter reported on Friday that premature messages referred to Joe Biden as “president-elect,” as the vote count continued in the peak U.S. election with the Democrat leading Donald Trump in several key states.
Tweets referring to the former vice president as the winner and running mate Kamala Harris as “vice president-elect” were tagged with messages saying the tally was not yet final.
“Official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted,” read a Twitter post under a post from Democratic Coalition co-founder and podcaster Scott Dworkin using both headlines for Biden and Harris.
The notice was accompanied by a link to information on the state of the election.
Twitter told AFP the move was in line with its civic integrity policy and the stance it has taken since the polls closed on Tuesday evening.
“We will qualify Tweets as a victory that meets our criteria because Pennsylvania and the presidential race in general have only been called by one source,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
“By our rules, until a second source makes this decision, claims of victory must cite a source who made the call.”
Twitter accounts that qualify to be tagged include presidential campaigns or contenders, as well as US-based accounts with over 100,000 followers or massively liked or cited tweets.
The results of the vote will be considered official by Twitter when announced by state election officials or when appeals on a result are supported by at least two national news organizations with independent decision-making offices, according to the service. one-to-many messaging.
Twitter and Facebook are scrambling to report, mask and limit the spread of premature victory claims or false attacks on the voting process since the polls closed on Tuesday night.
“While votes are still being counted across the country, our teams continue to take coercive action on tweets that prematurely declare victory or contain misleading information about the election in general,” Twitter said.
Unsubstantiated allegations by Trump regarding the voting process as well as premature claims of victory over either candidate in the race have been reported or withheld, with links provided to reliable sources of information.
Twitter’s action made comments less visible, and users looking to read the posts had to click a warning.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
