Tweets from US president Donald Trump have been flagged with a fact-check warning by the social media site.
Twitter added a warning phrase to two of Mr Trump’s tweets in which he called postal voting “fraudulent” and predicted that “mail boxes will be robbed”.
A link reading “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” appears under the posts that guides users to a Twitter Moments page with fact checks and news stories about Mr Trump’s unsubstantiated claims.
Until now, the US president has overcome Twitter’s attempts to enforce rules intended to promote civility and “healthy” conversation on its most prominent user.
Mr Trump frequently uses his feed to personally attack private citizens and public figures alike – all forbidden under Twitter’s official rules.
In a statement, Twitter said Mr Trump’s vote-by-mail tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labelled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots”.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden has called his anticipated rival for the US presidency a “fool” who was “stoking deaths” with his stance on wearing face masks amid the pandemic.
Mr Biden wore a facial covering during his first public appearance in more than two months at a Memorial Day wreath laying in Delaware.
White House incumbent Mr Trump retweeted a post which appeared to make fun of Mr Biden’s precautions against Covid-19.
In an interview with CNN, Mr Biden responded: “He’s a fool, an absolute fool, to talk that way. He’s supposed to lead by example.”
The former vice president also noted that nearly 100,000 Americans have been killed by the virus and suggested that as many as half of those deaths were avoidable but for Mr Trump’s “lack of attention and ego”.
Officials have recommended that people cover their nose and mouth in public when other measures, such as practising social distancing of at least 1.8 metres, are not possible.
But the issue has become increasingly politically charged, with Mr Trump refusing to wear a mask and polls finding that conservative Americans are more likely to forgo them as well.
