Twitter accounts have been tweeting out false voting information directed at Hillary Clinton supporters since early voting began. These tweets tell Clinton supporters they can "vote from home" by texting their vote in or voting on line. All of them are false, but Twitter seems to be having a problem cleaning up the tweets.
Robert McNees, a physics professor at Loyola University, was scrolling through the Twitter account @TheRickyVaughn. That's the account that posted the tweet calling Hillary Clinton "the c-word," which showed up on Texas Agricultural Commissioner Sid Miller's account. While there, McNees noticed a tweet informing Hillary voters they could "avoid the line" if they voted from home by texting "Hillary" to 59925.
He told me he flagged the tweet, asking Twitter to remove it. This morning, Twitter told him the tweet was not a violation of their Terms of Service:
Twitter just informed me that attempting to disenfranchise voters is not a violation of their Terms of Service. @jack @Support pic.twitter.com/YXVdt8sHwA
— Robert McNees (@mcnees) November 2, 2016
After Buzzfeed and ProPublica emailed in asking for comment, Twitter changed its tune, saying that they'd remove the tweet (and they did):
@mcnees @Support not sure how this got past us. Fixed (and thanks for reporting)
— 🚶🏽jack (@jack) November 2, 2016
But the misleading tweets are still easy to find on Twitter. A simple search on the service still yields dozens of misleading images attempting to convince Clinton supporters to stay home.
Here are some of the ones we found:
Hillary Supporters, Good News you can Vote from Home on Facebook Instagram and Twitter, no need to go to the polls! #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/upGxJEzJ39
— JerseyShur (@jerseyshur) October 15, 2016
OMG Trump didnt get his application in on time so his voters cant VOTE BY TEXT like Hillary's can! #ItsOver #HillaryWins #VotebyText#MAGA pic.twitter.com/HBMpUq42Ff
— Berners VOTE TRUMP (@Berners4Trump) October 31, 2016
You can vote for Hillary via text message! #ImWithHer #MadamPresident #GoHillary pic.twitter.com/0IAM8RY9WK
— Russian Hacker (@Hippieremover) October 30, 2016
These tweets may violate Twitter's guidelines which prevent users from "portraying another person in a confusing or deceptive manner." Twitter's press office has not responded to a request for comment on how they will deal with these tweets.
I looked for similarly misleading tweets directed at Trump supporters, but found none (other than this one, which appears to be a joke).
