WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to regulate or shut down social media companies for stifling conservative voices, a day after Twitter attached a warning to some of his tweets prompting readers to fact check the president’s claims.
Without offering evidence, Trump again accused such platforms of bias, tweeting: “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.”
The president, a heavy user of Twitter with more than 80 million followers, added: “Clean up your act, NOW!!!!”
Trump’s threat to shut down platforms like Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) and Facebook (FB.O) was his strongest yet within a broader conservative backlash against Big Tech.
Shares of both companies fell.
Twitter for the first time added fact-check labels on Trump tweets after he made unsubstantiated claims on Tuesday about mail-in voting. It attached a blue exclamation mark alert to his tweets to warn his claims were false and had been debunked by factcheckers.
In a pair of early morning posts on Wednesday, the Republican president again