Donald Trump has threatened to close down social media platforms that do not support his agenda, a day after Twitter posted a fact-checking notice on one of his tweets.
Social media firms suppressed conservative points of view, the president claimed without providing any evidence, before saying his administration would “strongly regulate [the companies] or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen”.
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Mr Trump advised the companies to “Clean up your act, NOW!!!!”.
It is unclear whether the president’s professed goal would be compatible with the first amendment to the US constitution.
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On Wednesday, he tweeted: “Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that happen again.
“Just like we can’t let large scale Mail-In Ballots take root in our Country. It would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!”
Twitter’s fact-checking notice was posted on a previous Trump tweet that claimed mail-in ballots could allow widespread voter fraud. It immediately led to a presidential eruption accusing the platform of “completely stifling FREE SPEECH”.
Mr Trump has used Twitter to spread baseless claims about voter fraud in the past, notably that thousands of people were bussed into certain states in order to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Ms Clinton won some 2.8 million more votes than Mr Trump in that election, though failed to carry the electoral college.
Mr Trump’s outburst on Wednesday also followed Twitter’s refusal to delete a number of posts in which he accused a television presenter of murder, again without any evidence.
