Study Shows Election Misinformation Dropped 73 Percent After Trump's Twitter Suspension

Jose Martinez
·2 min read
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Image via Getty/MANDEL NGAN/AFP

A new study has found that misinformation regarding election fraud has dropped 73 percent ever since that glorious day when Twitter permanently suspended Donald Trump's account.

According to the Washington Post, the research firm Zignal Labs made this determination by looking at the number of tweets discussing election fraud after Trump lost his primary means of spreading baseless theories about his defeat to Joe Biden. What was once 2.5 million mentions plummeted to nearly 688,000, subsequently making Twitter just a slightly less volatile medium.

Twitter's decision to quiet Trump has received considerable pushback. German chancellor Angela Merkel, who has never been a fan of Trump, called the move "problematic," and warns that doing so could run the "risk of further incitement of violence." Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador vows to bring up the issue of social media censorship when he meets with other world leaders.

"I can tell you that at the first G20 meeting we have, I am going to make a proposal on this issue," Lopez Obrador said, per New York Post."Yes, social media should not be used to incite violence and all that, but this cannot be used as a pretext to suspend freedom of expression."

Trump's absence has already impacted Twitter's bottom line with the company reporting a seven percent drop in shares. Analysts suspect his cult-like following could cut ties with the site, if Trump is no longer allowed to ever use the platform again. Others believe his suspension could lead to a boycott over the idea that Twitter is trying to silence conservative voices, or at the very least, punish anyone who doesn't align with their set of beliefs.

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