White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany called out Twitter for not fact checking Chinese propaganda after the social media giant added fact check labels to some of President Donald Trump’s tweets.
“We have seen some egregious actions by Twitter, for them to single out the president’s tweet which is a very truthful tweet,” McEnany told Fox News Thursday. “You’ve got to ask yourself what kind of political motivation was there in them doing that when they were not signaling, until minutes ago, before I walked out here. They were not fact checking Chinese propaganda that was blaming COVID on the United States Military.”
A spokesman for the Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly blamed the U.S. Military for the coronavirus pandemic, even though the virus originated in Wuhan. (RELATED: Eight Ways America Is Becoming More Like China)
McEnany also ripped Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site security, who donated to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and has compared Trump administration officials to Nazis.
“He’s the one making the determination on fact checks? He’s part of that team?” McEnany asked. “That’s pretty egregious and Twitter needs to answer for this and for their behavior.”
WATCH:
The president lashed out at social media companies Wednesday after Twitter added fact check labels to some of his tweets about mail-in-voting, and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. (RELATED: WSJ Editorial Board Goes After Trump Over Joe Scarborough ‘Smear’)
“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices,” Trump said. “We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.”
The president is expected to sign an executive order Thursday, targeting social media companies that allegedly engage in political discrimination. The news come as Republicans in Congress work to strip Twitter of their Section 230 protections, arguing that the company acts more like a publisher than a platform.
A Twitter spokesperson told the Daily Caller that they have flagged Chinese propaganda on their site before.
“These Tweets (here and here) contain potentially misleading content about COVID-19 and have been labeled to provide additional context to the public. These actions are in line with the approach we shared earlier this month,” the spokesperson said.
