In an email to a Twitter lawyer in February 2021, an unidentified Twitter employee wrote that the company had received over $3.4 million from the FBI since October 2019 as reimbursement for Twitter’s processing of legal requests for user information. That is not evidence that the FBI paid Twitter to “censor” or “suppress” content.
Public health officials around the world have explained that erectile dysfunction is not a side effect of COVID-19 vaccines, but a viral tweet from rapper Nicki Minaj has spread the unfounded claim that it is. There is no evidence to support that claim.
A fabricated tweet attributed to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez advocates extending COVID-19 restrictions on businesses “until after the November Elections.” There is no evidence Ocasio-Cortez sent the bogus tweet, which was shared — and later deleted — by a Florida congressional candidate and a Fox News host.
Q: Did military absentee ballots arrive a day late, swinging the election in favor of President Obama?
A: No. This rumor is based on a satirical post on a blog that specializes in “faux news.”
In a "Twitter Town Hall" event, President Barack Obama repeated a disputed claim about the electric car battery market, and he claimed that the payroll tax holiday is worth $1,000 to "almost every single American" when many will get less than that.
Obama took questions from Twitter users — limited to 140 characters, of course — and gave more verbose answers in the July 6 televised event at the White House. He touted the fact that the U.S.
In episode 9 of FactCheck Radio, we debunk false tweets from the political parties on Twitter, and we look at dueling ads in a special election to fill a House seat in Pennsylvania.
(Click the play button below to listen to the podcast. Or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.)
For more on the stories discussed in this episode, see:
Mis-Tweets on Twitter April 28
A False Hit on Critz April 22
Another False Tax Attack (And One That’s Just Deceptive) April 21
In light of our article yesterday about false and misleading political claims on Twitter, we found this story on media mis-tweetment amusing:
Mediaite.com: Just after 9:30 @ABCWorldNews twittered this: BREAKING: President Obama will name Elena Kagan his nominee for the Supreme Court, @jaketapper reports. As you will see, he did not, and the tweet has since been deleted.
It was picked up by one @lensmith22 who RT’d it.
Shortly thereafter Jake Tapper responded…on Twitter: “@ABCWorldNews no I dont.”
Mis-tweet
v. To use Twitter to mislead your followers.
For providing false and misleading information, a 30-second TV spot crafted by a seasoned media consultant is still king. But there’s another medium this campaign year that makes …