Last week, business magnate Elon Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter. With this came the removal of various executives that ran the social media site under previous ownership.
Since buying Twitter, Musk has been clear that free speech and political neutrality are going to be guiding principles of how the site is run. This marks a clear contrast to Twitter’s previous ownership which made sure conservatives were censored, while left-wing users could tweet out just about anything.
Thus far, Musk is living up to his word of Twitter not favoring one side over the other. This is made apparent by Joe Biden’s misleading tweets now being appropriately fact-checked.
Misleading Claim About the Inflation Reduction Act
The president repeatedly touts the Inflation Reduction Act as a win for the US economy, despite the lack of evidence to back this up.
On Friday, Biden tweeted that his spending bill would ensure 55 corporations with $40 billion in profits stop paying “zero” federal taxes. Twitter fact-checked the president by putting a disclaimer under his post.
Let me give you the facts.
In 2020, 55 corporations made $40 billion. And they paid zero in federal taxes.
My Inflation Reduction Act puts an end to this.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 29, 2022
The disclaimer informs readers that just 14 of the 55 corporations had more than $1 billion in earnings. Therefore, the remaining 41 corporations would not be impacted by the president’s new spending bill in the capacity that he is alleging.
Upon further review, BirdWatch was discovered as the fact-checking source that is calling out the president’s misleading claims.
More Fact-checking
The president’s comments about the Inflation Reduction Act are far from the only time he has been caught being less than truthful. Videos of Biden talking about gas prices also spread on social media.
During these comments, the president lied and alleged that gas prices were higher than $5.00 per gallon when he came into office last year. Twitter is fact-checking these comments as well.
Wow, this is the first time I’ve noticed a crowd-sourced fact check generated within Twitter’s app that was critical of this administration and factual. Historically, these types of disclaimers attached to tweets have been pure government propaganda. pic.twitter.com/NDonliouUT
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 28, 2022
In reality, the gas prices in January 2021 were well under $5.00 per gallon. They have risen considerably since Biden worsened inflation and shut down domestic energy production in the name of climate change.
If all goes well, Twitter will keep on fact-checking the president when he is lying. Despite how much Biden wants everyone to believe what he is saying, the American people deserve to know the truth, even if that hurts Democrats politically.
