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Lamborn backs Trump beef with Twitter with House resolution

May 29, 2020

By Joey Bunch- Colorado Politics

President Trump isn't the only politico who has a bone to pick with Twitter. Add U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs to the list.

He's backing a resolution "condemning Twitter's biased and unwarranted censorship of President Donald J. Trump."

Trump made the allegation Tuesday after his favorite social media venue applied fact checks to two of his posts about the integrity of at-home voting. Trump has promised repercussions, calling the action a violation of his free speech rights.

He said Twitter was relying on fact-checkers such as CNN and The Washington Post, deemed by the president to be enemies.

Fox News reported Thursday evening that "President Trump is threatening to regulate or even shut down social media companies he feels are out to get him."

In a statement, Twitter said, "These tweets contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots. This decision is in line with the approach we shared earlier this month."

Lamborn joined fellow Republicans Reps. Doug Collins of Georgia, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Jim Banks of Indiana in filing the resolution, which has zero chance in the Democratic-held House.

"Free speech is one of the founding principles of our nation. President Trump uniquely uses social media to interact directly with the American people, and to bypass the political biases of the mainstream media," Lamborn said in a statement Thursday evening. "Now, Twitter, a platform built on the free and open exchange of ideas, is singling out the President in an attempt to suppress his First Amendment right and interfere in the Democratic process. We cannot allow this to continue unchecked."

He added he was "glad to stand up for the rights of all Americans."

Biggs said, "By censoring discourse and providing fact checks to users' posts, digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have acted like publishers while maintaining the liability exemptions ... are reserved for digital platforms."

Later Thursday, Twitter added a warning to one of President Donald Trump's tweets about protests in Minneapolis, saying it violated the platform's rules about "glorifying violence."

The third tweet to be flagged came amid days of violent protests over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer kneeled on his neck.

"These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen," Trump tweeted about the protesters. "Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!"

Twitter did not remove the tweet, saying it had determined it might be in the public interest to have it remain accessible. It does that only for tweets by elected and government officials. But the tweet was hidden so that a user looking at Trump's timeline would have to click on the warning to see the original tweet.

"We've taken action in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts, but have kept the Tweet on Twitter because it is important that the public still be able to see the Tweet given its relevance to ongoing matters of public importance," Twitter said on its communications account.

A tweet using the same language as Trump's was later posted on the official White House Twitter account.

The earlier tweets that Twitter flagged were not hidden but did come with an option to "get the facts about mail-in ballots," a link that led to fact checks and news stories by media organizations. Those tweets called mail-in ballots "fraudulent" and predicted that "mail boxes will be robbed," among other things.