
Twitter tags Trump tweet with fact-checking warning - evancaine
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52815552
======
merricksb
Earlier discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23317286](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23317286)

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tathougies
Well, I think we have reached peak fact-checking. The president, regardless of
his many demerits, made a prediction on what he think will happen. Regardless
of one's views on mail-in voting, it is obvious to anyone with sense that a
prediction is not and never will be a 'fact', and cannot be 'checked' by
anyone until the event has passed, unless twitter is now also claiming the
ability to read the future.

~~~
threatofrain
One reasonable interpretation is that the US President is saying that there is
no way to legally perform mail-in voting without committing fraud. Is it in
fact fraud? You may wish to check whether you're about to engage in fraudulent
behavior.

~~~
tathougies
> no way to legally perform mail-in voting without committing fraud

That's not at all what he is saying. He said mail-in ballots will be
'substantially fraudulent'. The obvious interpretation is that the president
believes that a substantial portion of ballots in a mail-in election are
fraudulent, not that any one who votes for him via mail is committing fraud. I
don't understand the need to read between the lines here.

~~~
egamirorrim
Surely it's in the way he's phrased it. "There is no way..." \- that's a fact
right there.

If the post had said "I don't think there's a way..." Then it might have been
a different story

~~~
tathougies
When a politician speaks about something political, there is always an
implicit 'I believe' or 'I think'. I mean, Biden recently said black-skinned
people who don't vote for him aren't black. Obviously, he doesn't need to be
fact checked, because he was just saying what he believes. Same with Trump.
Politicians speak politics -- a belief system.

Gosh, I really hope Twitter doesn't start fact-checking the Pope. What a sad
state of affairs.

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egamirorrim
Brilliant, this news gladdens my heart. This dangerous cockwomble needs fact
checking, hopefully it might make a difference to his ignorant followers. I'm
really happy Twitter is starting to apply the same standards to popular
accounts that it does to regular users.

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dorkwood
The full text of the tweet:

> There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than
> substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged
> & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of
> California is sending ballots to millions of people, anyone.....

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thereyougo
Not into politics, but I think they should do it for all twitter influencers
or political accounts then

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telesilla
What kinds of evidence-based resources are there I can use to send friends who
insist on believing in conspiracies? I usually try and find some peer-reviewed
research. Maybe they don't read it because of the dryness but it seems to have
the most authority.

~~~
HeavenFox
When you try to argue with them, you already lost. People believe in what they
choose to believe in, and human brains treat attacking one's belief as
attacking oneself.

As long as they are not causing harm, just leaving them be is probably the
best approach.

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briandear
This is relevant:
[https://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/V...](https://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/Veasey7848.pdf)

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zuppy
a related ny times article: [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/opinion/trump-
scarborough...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/opinion/trump-scarborough-
twitter.html)

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cpeterso
While I believe the concerns about mail-in voting fraud is _vastly_ overblown,
there are genuine security challenges with mail-in paper ballots. How would
one design a mail-in voting system that ensures all votes are counted without
fraudulent or duplicate votes while also providing voter privacy?

~~~
rnestler
In Switzerland we have mail-in voting since many years and it is the most used
voting option. The way it works to ensure that votes aren't fraudulent /
duplicate votes while providing voter privacy is as follows: Inside the main
envelope there is your transmission card ("Stimmrechtsausweis") which is
signed by you and a separate anonymous return envelope with your actual votes.
When it arrives in the municipality the transmission card will be verrified
and (if valid) the still closed return envelope will be put into the ballot
for later counting.

See
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_in_Switzerland](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_in_Switzerland)
for more information.

~~~
cpeterso
Thanks! I vote by mail in California, but it is "fire and forget", so it's
interesting to see how another system works. I know some people in California
who have received email confirmation that their mail-in ballot has been
received (though I haven't).

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Me1000
I'm very interested to see where this goes long term, but just today the
widower of Lori Klausutis mailed Jack Dorsey directly, asking Twitter to take
down a flagrant lie Trump tweeted about the murdered victim by a morning new
host Trump doesn't like. Twitter refused.

There's a lot of content Trump tweets that would get most accounts banned.

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qubex
Let’s asume this is the first of many such warnings. Let’s also assume that
(being a private company) Twitter evades any attempt at pressuring it into
desisting (as is indeed likely).

Will Trump tweet less? Will he relocate to another platform? (If so, which?)
Wil this materially affect his relationship with his followers?

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ashtonkem
I see no reason why he’d change; both because I doubt he can stop, and because
his fans are already well primed to trust him more than <negative adjective>
tech companies.

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enahs-sf
Why’d it take so long?

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chrismsimpson
Is the tag #twitter?

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sytelus
Not a

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disordinary
How do you police a promise before it's fulfilled? Completely different from
lying.

