Donald Trump is yet to offer a concession speech and on Sunday, it again became apparent that a concession speech was unlikely anytime soon. The sitting US President reminded the world he had not conceded yet and asserted that there was a long way to go. And as sure as clockwork, Twitter dutifully reminded everyone that the claims about election fraud were disputed pretending as though people were not already aware of the dispute.
-Donald Trump
Twitter, of course, has been censoring the US President for quite some time. But it was only in the aftermath of the counting of votes that the extent to which they would go to actually became apparent. The social media platform was basically censoring Donald Trump left, right and centre.
In the process, however, Twitter itself became a source of massive misinformation. In response to a tweet by Donald Trump where he said, “I won the election,” the social media platform claimed that “official sources” have called the elections differently. On clicking the label, Twitter takes one to a media report that projects Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 US presidential elections.
Needless to say, the media is not an official source and the media has no role to play in deciding the results of an election. That Twitter is treating the mainstream media, which has been remarkably hostile to Donald Trump during the course of his presidency and spread fake news against him on a daily basis, as an ‘official source’ is a matter of extreme concern to say the least.
As top US legal analyst Jonathan Turley pointed out earlier in the month, “We are finishing only the second of four stages in an election for president. After the voting stage, states began the tabulation stage. We will soon enter the canvass stage, in which local districts confirm their counts and face challenges or recounts. Finally, there is the certification stage, in which final challenges can be raised. In other words, Trump is not deceased yet.”
That was written eight days ago. Currently, recounts are underway in some state and legal suits in others. It’s only after Constitutional processes have been exhausted that the official results of the elections will be known. The results of these elections are still disputed and it is not legitimate at all to treat the media as an ‘official source’.
It is pertinent to mention here about the 2000 US Presidential elections when Republican Candidate George W. Bush faced off against Democratic nominee Al Gore. That was a disputed election as well and the results were not known for over a month and was ultimately decided by a Supreme Court verdict in favour of Bush.
Therefore, Trump’s refusal to concede the elections yet is clearly not as unprecedented as the mainstream media and the Democrat Party is trying to make it appear with help from social media platforms. While it seems extremely unlikely that Donald Trump will remain the president for a second term, officially, he is not out of the race yet.