Twitter immediately flags new Trump tweet that baselessly claims election fraud

'This claim about election fraud is disputed,' social media giant says

(Independent)

Twitter immediately flagged one of Donald Trump’s latest tweets that doubles down — again — on his campaign’s baseless assertions of election fraud.

“This claim about election fraud is disputed,” the social media platform bolted in blue lettering underneath the president’s tweet.

“THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE,” Mr Trump wrote on Saturday, hours after The Associated Press called the US presidential election for his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.

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To be explicitly clear, Mr Trump’s all-caps claims about observers not being allowed watch ballots being counted are simply not true.

From Pennsylvania to Nevada to Arizona, certified poll watchers from both parties have been allowed to observe state and county election officials processing ballots and tallying vote totals all week.

Mr Trump then misleadingly insinuated that mail-in ballots were rife with fraud because some states sent ballots to all registered voters.

“MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM!” the president wrote in his tweet.

The only mostly accurate element of the president’s tweet is that he has won 71m nationwide popular votes. That tally actually only stood at 70,636,664 by the time Mr Trump published his tweet, but it is not uncommon for politicians to round up in their messaging.