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As we recall all too well from 2016, disinformation shared on social media can have a devastating impact on elections. It’s not an easy task for social media companies to monitor and remove or refute disinformation on their networks, but it’s a necessary one. An even more challenging proposition is how to handle it when it comes directly from someone in a position of great importance and influence—like the President of the United States. Kudos to Twitter for finally drawing a line in the sand yesterday, and tagging tweets from the president that include misinformation and outright lies. Simply put, our republic cannot survive without truth. —Evan McMullin
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1. Trump vs Twitter
Donald Trump has added yet another entity to his long enemies list—Twitter. Though he makes frequent and often infamous use of the social media network (covfefe anyone?), the president is now suggesting he may shut Twitter down altogether. Can he do that? Unlikely. But it hasn’t stopped him from trying. It all started yesterday. For the first time, Twitter fact-checked two of Trump's unsubstantiated tweets that mail-in ballots in the 2020 election would be fraudulent by directing users to "get the facts" through news stories that cover the topic. It didn’t sit well with the president. —Axios
- — “Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post...,” Trump tweeted in response. —Twitter
— This morning, he kicked it up a notch. He wrote, “Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that...” —Twitter-
- —It is unclear whether Trump has the authority to shut down Twitter or any social media company. Congress, along with the Justice Department, has been considering changes to the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that largely exempts online platforms from legal liability for material their users post. The White House is also considering establishing a panel to review complaints of anti-conservative bias on social media. Stay tuned. —Reuters
4. Hong Kong no longer autonomous from China
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement today that he has certified to Congress that Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China and does not warrant special treatment under U.S. law. The U.S. has long granted Hong Kong preferential status, making the city a top U.S. trading partner.
- — Revoking Hong Kong's special status would hasten its economic and financial decline. The U.S. and Hong Kong do $67 billion in bilateral trade each year, and more than 1,300 U.S. companies have operations in Hong Kong.
— The move comes after the Chinese Communist Party unveiled a sweeping new security law that will criminalize sedition, foreign influence, and secession in Hong Kong, putting the once semi-autonomous city's status at risk.-
- — “Hong Kong and its dynamic, enterprising, and free people have flourished for decades as a bastion of liberty, and this decision gives me no pleasure,” Pompeo said. “But sound policy making requires a recognition of reality. While the United States once hoped that free and prosperous Hong Kong would provide a model for authoritarian China, it is now clear that China is modeling Hong Kong after itself.” —Axios
9. Elliott: Divided by democracy?
“When has any American, faced with someone in desperate need of help, asked about the victim’s politics before they offered to help them? Not on the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, not in any hurricane, tornado, flood or fire, not in any natural disaster—except this one.
Memorial Day, just past, is the day when we pause to thank those who have defended America from harm. We thank them irrespective of their politics, as they defended us without asking about our politics—or religion—or skin color. They defended us because, as Americans, we are all in this together. Lincoln, quoting the Bible, said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ We are painfully close to being divided because of politics.” —The Missoulian
Ed. Note: Jim Elliott served 16 years in the Montana Legislature as a state representative and state senator, and four years as chairman of the Montana Democratic Party.
It becomes increasingly evident to me that systemic racism is alive and well in our country every time an unarmed black person is unjustly killed by police. Black men and women should not have to live in fear for their lives or their families’ lives. Being black in America should not be a death sentence. When we say “liberty and justice for all,” it should mean for ALL. While I’m glad the officers involved in the death of George Floyd were swiftly fired from their jobs, the police officer who pinned Floyd down by the neck with his knee should be charged for murder. White people need to use their privilege to demand change. —Lauren A., New Jersey
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