Twitter is now allowing users to report false or misleading information in tweets about voting in this year's election.
The new feature announced Wednesday allows users to flag a tweet that contains misinformation about an election in the same way one might report abusive language — by clicking "Report Tweet."
It's the latest attempt by social media companies to position themselves as a force for good in safeguarding the 2020 campaign against online efforts to suppress the vote or otherwise shape voter behavior through disinformation. For the past four years, the industry has been roundly derided for doing too little before the 2016 election to prevent its platforms from being exploited by Russians and others bent on destabilizing democracy.
The Twitter tool, while brand new to the United States, was available overseas last year ahead of elections in the European Union, Britain and India.
After finding a suspicious tweet, the user is prompted to select whether the tweet contains false information about where or how to register to vote or cast a ballot, has language intended to suppress or intimidate voters, or misrepresents an affiliation with or impersonates a "candidate, elected official, political party, or government entity."
Tweets designed to manipulate or interfere with the election process already violate Twitter's terms of use. Reports submitted through the new tool will be reviewed to see if the suspected tweets violate those rules.
The company's announcement came the same day Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts announced her plan crack down on online misinformation if elected president.
But the timing of Twitter's rollout and Warren's post is likely coincidental. In April 2019, the company said it intended to offer a misinformation reporting tool ahead of elections overseas and planned to expand the tool to cover "other elections globally throughout the rest of the year."
Twitter reiterated that commitment in a tweet Wednesday. "This tool has been an important aspect of our efforts to protect the health of the Twitter conversation for elections around the globe, including in India, the UK, and across the EU," it said.
The social media platforms have come under heightened governmental scrutiny in recent months. In the fall the Senate Intelligence Committee's comprehensive report on interference in the 2016 election criticized the companies for helping spread disinformation.
Facebook is now banning posts with information designed to mislead or deceive prospective voters — and it too gives users an option to report "incorrect voting info" on a post. YouTube similarly allow users can report election-related misinformation using its system for calling out inappropriate content.
Twitter said in October it was imposing a worldwide ban on political advertising, a move that did not go over well with campaigns in both parties and was criticized as an ultimately insufficient response to the rising wave of political misinformation.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.