Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blasted Twitter over its fact-check of President Trump’s tweets and offered a warning about the social media platform’s future.
“I think Twitter has gone down a very dangerous path and, if they’re not careful, they’re going to become a regulated public institution rather than a totally free entrepreneurial institution,” Gingrich said Wednesday on Fox News.
Gingrich, a close Trump ally, also said that it is of “great concern” that Facebook, Twitter, and Google are “all located in one of the most radical left-wing parts of America.”
“And they express that in their biases,” he added.
Twitter sparked a fierce debate on Tuesday when it added a “get the facts” alert under Trump’s tweets targeting California’s mail-in ballots. Trump then accused the social media giant of interfering in the presidential election.
“@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post,” Trump responded. “Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!”
The “get the facts” alert brings users to a page containing tweets and links to news articles about mail-in voting. Gingrich blasted the news sources provided and said they were biased.
“They went to left-wing publications to get a left-wing version,” the former speaker said.
Some Republican lawmakers bashed Twitter after the move, with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida warning that Twitter “should no longer be shielded from liability” and treated as a publisher if it decides to not act strictly as a social media forum.
