US President Donald Trump has warned social media giants that his government could “strongly regulate” or “close them down” after Twitter fact-checked one of his tweets for the first time.
“We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.”
Later in the day, he said that Twitter “has now shown everything we have been saying about them… is correct” and vowed “big action to follow”.
It was in response to Trump’s tweet, without providing evidence, said: “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent.”
It is unclear what regulatory steps the president could take without new laws passed by Congress, the BBC reported.
Earlier, Trump has accused Twitter of interfering in this year’s US presidential election scheduled for November, saying the company was “completely stifling free speech, and I, as president, will not allow it to happen”.
With more than 52,000 tweets currently to his name, Trump is a prolific tweeter and relies on the platform to disseminate his views to millions of people.
He has used Twitter to launch attacks on opponents, with targets ranging from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to his political rivals in the US.
In 2017 he used anti-Muslim tweets aimed at London Mayor Sadiq Khan to serve a domestic political purpose of warning about immigration.
–IANS