Trump: We will regulate or ‘close down’ social media platforms before they silence conservatives

President Trump on Wednesday threatened to “strongly regulate” or close down social media platforms if they silence conservative voices, stepping up his criticism after Twitter attached fact-checking context to Mr. Trump’s tweets for the first time on Tuesday.

“Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives’ voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,” the president said on Twitter.

“We saw what they attempted to do, and failed, in 2016. We can’t let a more sophisticated version of that…happen again,” the president said.

Mr. Trump also continued his criticism of voting by mail, saying “whoever cheated the most would win” in a large-scale vote by mail election.

“Likewise, Social Media. Clean up your act, NOW!!!!” he said.

Mr. Trump had said on Tuesday that Twitter is stifling free speech after it attached links to fact-checks on a pair of his tweets criticizing vote-by-mail efforts. The company said they were trying to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.