This week, for the first time, Twitter “examined the facts” in one of President Trump’s opinions and directed users to coverage of the example of justice and objectivity, CNN (don’t laugh).
Twitter announced the introduction of new features earlier this month. The aim, the two workers wrote, was “to make it easy to find credible information” and to curb the flow of “misleading content.”
But I wonder: Will the platform also add a “fact-check” label and links to tweets from leading liberals who also turn out to be “misleading” or outright wrong?
Start with 2017 Tweet from CNN contributors Ana Navarro claims that “the Ivanka Fund received a $ 100 million promise from the Saudis and the UAE.”
The truth: cash goes into World Bank initiatives for women entrepreneurs. Navarro Tweets collected more than 43,000 retweets.
Or what about 2019 tweets from actress Nancy Lee Grahn who show photos of migrant children at border detention centers and revile Team Trump for allegedly abusing children? As an internet detective pointed out, Grahn’s photo was cropped to erase the time stamp: 2015. It generated nearly 50,000 retweets.
Then there The 2018 blog by Rachel Maddow claims that the White House had edited the video of the Helsinki president’s press conference with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin “to remove [a] question about whether [he] want Trump to win. “The Washington Post and many other outlets have denied the claim, but the tweet is still up, with 24,000 retweets – and no Twitter warning label.
In January 2019, former President Barack Obama’s ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, joined thousands of other members of Twitterati’s blue check on touting made-for-Twitter BuzzFeed News exposure. “This is great,” McFaul wrote, “President Trump directed his lawyers to lie to Congress.”
Yes, big – and wrong: Special team advisor Robert Mueller quickly stated that the story was inaccurate, and his report explained that the president had not done such a thing. There is no danger of Twitter’s “fact-checking” for McFaul, et al.,
Harvard law professor and #Resistance Laurence Tribe icon in December 2017 asked his followers to “retweet if, like me, you don’t realize anything in Christopher Steele’s file that has been proven wrong.” Nearly 8,000 retweeted, despite the fact that the file was completely rejected.
Finally, on a local note: Surely, if a tweet comes with health hazards, it is city council member Mark Levine in February invitation to the Gothamites to celebrate Chinese New Year in Chinatown “which deviates from coronavirus”: “If you stay away, you lose the chance!”
Sohrab Ahmari is the operational editor of The Post.
