WASHINGTON – On news of Twitter marking some of President Trump’s tweets with links to facts about mail-in voting, and the President’s responses to that action, Constitutional Accountability Center President Elizabeth Wydra issued the following reaction:

Balancing the values of free speech, equality, and democracy often requires social media companies to engage in some sort of content moderation and to take action to ensure that lies do not go viral. Twitter’s decision to urge users to get the facts in the face of President Trump’s demonstrable lies about mail-in voter fraud—which has been proven over and over not to be a widespread problem—is not only permissible, it is to be applauded. President Trump’s attempt to bully social media companies into letting him spread lies must be called out for what it is—a blatant attempt to continue voter suppression and misinformation tactics that have no place in our constitutional democracy.

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Resources:

Purple Chair Chat (video discussion), Speech and Its Relationship to Equality: Constitutional Values in the Digital Age, May 28, 2020: https://twitter.com/MyConstitution/status/1266059172266696704 

Speech and Its Relationship to Equality: Constitutional Values in the Digital Age, CAC Issue Brief, David H. Gans, May 21, 2020: https://www.theusconstitution.org/think_tank/issue-brief-speech-and-its-relationship-to-equality-constitutional-values-in-the-digital-age/ 

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Constitutional Accountability Center is a think tank, public interest law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text and history. Visit CAC’s website at www.theusconstitution.org.

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