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Jimmy Kimmel says Trump started Twitter war because he’s ‘going to lose’ election

‘While racial injustice is tearing this country apart, he is going to war with Twitter’

Clémence Michallon
New York City
Friday 29 May 2020 16:08 BST
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Jimmy Kimmel slams Trump's 'war with Twitter'

Jimmy Kimmel has criticised Donald Trump’s “war with Twitter”, saying the president’s recent actions against social media outlets are motivated by his fear of losing the presidential election.

The late-night host dedicated part of his monologue on Thursday to Trump’s recent executive order threatening social media companies with new legislation that could penalise them for how they regulate content on their platforms.

“While racial injustice is tearing this country apart, [Trump] is going to war with Twitter,” Kimmel said.

“Earlier this week, Twitter labelled one of Trump’s many lies as potentially misleading, and linked it to news articles showing that it was misleading.

“He keeps claiming that vote by mail — even though he himself does it — will result in some kind of avalanche of anti-Trump voter fraud.

“It’s part of his multi-pronged looks-like-I’m-gonna-lose-so-I’ll-make-every-case-I-can-to-say-I-was-cheated campaign.”

Kimmel then mentioned Trump’s executive order, which he signed on Thursday.

“This is crazy,” the host said.

“...In a nutshell, the president is mad at an app on his phone and is using the power of his office to retaliate.

“This is what’s on his mind as the death toll from a virus is over 100,000 now and people are rioting in the streets.

“[Trump] told reporters today he would shut down Twitter if his attorneys could find a way, because they’re limiting his ‘freedom of speech’, which is obviously insane. He is Mr Twitter. And by the way, if he’s so mad at Twitter, why doesn’t he stop using it? He can’t, because he loves it.”

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After applying a fact-check to Trump’s tweets about mail-in ballots, Twitter took another step to regulate the president’s Twitter activity.

The platform has hidden one of Trump’s tweets about protests in Minnesota, stating that the message “violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence”. The update is still visible to those who choose to view it by clicking on it.

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