The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee asked social media companies on Friday to block President Trump from making some claims about mail-in voting, saying his criticism violates the companies’ policies.
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said Mr. Trump is telling “lies” about mail voting and urged the companies to be prepared to enforce their rules prohibiting content that misleads voters.
The congressman cited one previous statement by the president that “elections can never be honest with mail-in ballots/voting” as evidence that Mr. Trump is crossing lines.
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“Posts suggesting that a lawfully cast mail-in ballot will not be counted — even if made by senior Republican officials — are not a matter of opinion. They are false statements that clearly fall within your own prohibitions and standards,” Mr. Raskin wrote.
He sent letters to X, TikTok, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and Google, which owns YouTube.
Tech firms are likely to tread lightly in this area after getting bloody noses from the 2020 election and the pandemic, when they rushed to censor posts at the behest of government agencies.
The Biden White House in particular regularly flagged content from opponents that it wanted to see taken down and would occasionally suggest possible consequences if cooperation wasn’t forthcoming.
The Supreme Court in 2024 found the Biden administration didn’t cross the line to coercion.
Mr. Raskin is in line to become chairman of the committee should Democrats win control of the chamber in the midterm elections.
He told the tech firms that “we plan to exercise vigilant oversight of your platform.”
Mr. Trump has been critical of mail-in voting for years, saying it expands opportunities for mischief once a ballot leaves the closed circuit of election official and voter. In states such as California that mail ballots to every registered voter, it means millions of live ballots are sent to the last listed address.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has opined, “It has long been established that mail-in ballots are prone to fraud.”
But other courts, in lawsuits that beat back Mr. Trump’s attempt to have the U.S. Postal Service police mailed ballots this year, have said the administration didn’t present any concrete evidence of fraud.
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