Clay Calvert, director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, is quoted in “Twitter Applies Trump Fact-Check Standard to Twitter Official Who Blamed Pandemic on U.S. Military” published in Newsweek on May 28.

The article features Twitter’s addition of a fact-check warning to tweets promoting a conspiracy theory about the origins of the coronavirus which were sent by China’s foreign ministry spokesperson. The retroactive decision came the day after similar labels were placed on tweets sent by President Donald Trump.

Trump has threatened to now take action against social media companies which he has accused of trying to “silence conservative voices,” saying that “we will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.”

According to Calvert, “President Trump has no legal authority or standing to close down a social media platform such as Twitter or Facebook on his own.”

Posted: May 29, 2020
Category: College News, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project News
Tagged as: Clay Calvert, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project, Newsweek