Twitter, Facebook label Trump camp’s posts prematurely claiming victory in Pennsylvania

Facebook and Twitter slapped labels on posts by President Trump’s allies prematurely claiming victory in Pennsylvania, though critics argued the social media platforms moved too slowly.

Eric Trump, one of the president’s two adult sons, at roughly 3:30 p.m. EST tweeted, “We have won Pennsylvania!”

At that time, more than a million mail-in ballots remained uncounted in a contest where the president leads by just more than 300,000 votes. Democratic nominee Joe Biden has been winning mail-in votes in Pennsylvania by a nearly 4-to-1 margin, suggesting many of the remaining mail-in ballots would favor the former vice president.

Twitter appended a label noting that “official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted” shortly before 4 p.m. EST based on the platform’s civic integrity policy. But by then the tweet had spread widely on social media. The tweet has been shared more than 30,000 times.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted “VICTORY for President @realDonaldTrump in PENNSYLVANIA” at roughly the same time as Eric Trump’s post, and the same label was applied.

Facebook added a label saying that “final results may be different from the initial vote counts, as ballot counting will continue for days or weeks after polls close” to the same McEnany post on its platform.

Facebook reportedly had decided earlier not to label premature victory declaration at the state level, only at the national level. It later changed that policy, reportedly early Wednesday morning.

The Hill has reached out to Facebook for comment.

Both platforms have continued to take action on posts by the president throughout the day Wednesday, adding labels noting the election has not been decided yet.

Twitter has also restricted the ability of users to interact with some of his posts, including one claiming baselessly that “they” are working to erase his leads in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Michigan has been called for Biden by multiple news outlets, including NBC News and CNN.