Following Twitter’s decision to start fact-checking President Trump, a history of harshly partisan anti-Trump tweets from the man who is “Head of Site Integrity” at Twitter have surfaced.
The LinkedIn profile of Yoel Roth, the Head of Site Integrity at Twitter, reads:
Yoel is the Head of Site Integrity at Twitter. He leads the teams responsible for developing and enforcing Twitter’s rules on platform manipulation, spam, and API access, as well as Twitter’s investigation and attribution efforts related to state-backed information operations. Before joining Twitter, Yoel received his PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. His research and teaching focused on the intersecting dynamics of privacy, safety, and self-expression in online dating apps.
Some of Roth’s posts were first noted by Jon Levine of The New York Post. The same man who “leads the teams responsible for developing and enforcing Twitter’s rules on platform manipulation, spam, and API access,” has issued tweets like the following:
September 2016: “I’ve never donated to a presidential campaign before, but I just gave $100 to Hillary for America. We can’t f*** around anymore.”
Just after President Trump was elected, on November 8, 2016: “I’m just saying, we fly over those states that voted for a racist tangerine for a reason.”
Early January 2017: “I’m almost ready to stop dwelling on how my friends are complicit in the election of Donald Trump. Almost.”
Just prior to President Trump’s inauguration: “Massive anti-Trump protest headed up Valencia St,” followed by a “heart” emoji and “San Francisco.”
Just after Trump’s inauguration, on January 22, 2017: “Today on Meet The Press, we’re speaking with Joseph Goebbels about the first 100 days … What I hear whenever Kellyanne is on a news show.”
Also on January 22, 2017: “Yes, that person in the pink hat is clearly a bigger threat to your brand of feminism than ACTUAL NAZIS IN THE WHITE HOUSE.”
July 2017: “How does a personality-free bag of farts like Mitch McConell actually win elections?”
Fox News contacted Twitter about Roth’s past posts, and a spokesperson responded, “No one person at Twitter is responsible for our policies or enforcement actions, and it’s unfortunate to see individual employees targeted for company decisions.”
Twitter linked Fox News to a post from communications VP Brandon Borrman: “No one person here is responsible for our polices or enforcement actions. People who decide to target one person for decisions they don’t agree with know damn well what they’re doing.”
On Tuesday night, President Trump slammed Twitter for fact-checking his tweets, which they had begun doing earlier Tuesday, starting with two of Trump’s tweets about mail-in-voting. In his response, Trump accused Twitter of “interfering in the 2020 presidential election” and “stifling free speech,” actions he vowed that he “will not allow.”
“[Twitter] is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election,” the president tweeted. “They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post. Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!”
On Tuesday, Twitter placed a warning under two of Trump’s tweets in which he slammed the use of mail-in ballots. The warnings read, “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” with a link to a site that said Trump’s facts were wrong as posited by “CNN, Washington Post and others.”
The fact-checked Trump tweets read: “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!”
Clicking on the warning Twitter posted sent the reader to a site on Twitter which states: “On Tuesday, President Trump made a series of claims about potential voter fraud after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an effort to expand mail-in voting in California during the COVID-19 pandemic. These claims are unsubstantiated, according to CNN, Washington Post and others. Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud.”
The site continues: “Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to ‘a Rigged Election.’ However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud. Trump falsely claimed that California will send mail-in ballots to ‘anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there.’ In fact, only registered voters will receive ballots. Though Trump targeted California, mail-in ballots are already used in some states, including Oregon, Utah and Nebraska.”
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