Who decides what gets counted as ‘misinformation’? For the increasingly large number of people who get their news from social media the answer these days is probably Facebook or Twitter, which in recent years have become far more powerful than any old press baron.
This became particularly apparent during the tail end of the Donald Trump era, when Twitter began slapping fake news labels on the outgoing president’s tweets. As Trump rallied against the results of the 2020 presidential election, Twitter responded by hiding his tweets behind warning labels which said their content was ‘disputed’ or ‘might be misleading’.
Eventually Trump was booted off his favourite platform ‘due to the risk of further incitement of violence’ after he tweeted that: ‘The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future.
Get Britain's best politics newsletters
Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in