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PoliticoUS election: Social media firms brace for misinformation surge after Donald Trump’s false victory claim
- Premature declarations of victory are one of the dangers social media companies have been bracing for in recent weeks
- Facebook, Twitter and Google have adapted their measures as a result, but they’re nevertheless stuck navigating a political minefield for the foreseeable future
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The United States’ largest social networks are bracing for confusion among their millions of users and a potential torrent of misinformation in the days to come after President Donald Trump falsely claimed victory over former vice-president Joe Biden despite the many votes yet to be counted.
Trump’s premature announcement, during a White House appearance shortly after 2am on Wednesday, drew cheers from his supporters in the room.
But it added to worries that his words would sow doubts on the evolving vote tallies and set the stage for protracted legal battles – tensions that will surely echo online.
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“We will win this and, as far as I’m concerned, we already have won,” Trump said at the White House, falsely declaring that he had clinched states where millions of votes cast on or before Election Day had not yet been counted.
He also vowed to go to the Supreme Court, baselessly calling the election a “fraud on the American public”.
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