According to a new “Twitter Files” thread by members of Twitter’s 2020 election enforcement Slack channel, former Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee considered deleting a tweet that included a joke about mail-in ballots.
Huckabee tweeted, “Standed in the rain for hours today to vote early. When I got home I filled my stack of mail-in ballots and then voted on ballots for my deceased parents and grandparents . They vote just like me! #Trump2020,” Huckabee tweeted. October 24, 2020.
Substack writer Matt Taibby revealed that in a Slack channel titled us2020_xfn_enforcement, Twitter employees debated whether the tweet should be removed. A Twitter employee linked to Huckabee’s tweet, writing, “Hello, putting this tweet on everyone’s radar.” It sounds like a joke, but other people may believe it.
The revelation about Huckabee’s tweet was made on Friday during a “Twitter Files” thread. Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, Joel Roth, said in a Slack channel that while he agrees it is a joke, Huckabee is literally admitting in a tweet to a crime.
Yes. I could see us operating under ‘deceptive claims that create confusion about established laws, regulations, procedures and methods of civil procedure’ but this is not what we would actually label useful.
Not a silly and sick joke or anything. I’m probably not inclined to delete without a report from the polling officials, Roth said, because it’s been a while since he tweeted this and virtually all replies are critical/counter-arguments. The last message in the screenshot of the Slack channel shows a Twitter employee saying that the tweet should be left alone.
The thrust of the joke seems to be that mail-in ballots are for bogus votes, so I could see an argument for our mail-in voting labels, but given the confusion I’m inclined to leave the joke alone. Twitter Employee wrote.