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Twitter names 7 outlets to call election results, including Fox News

02 November 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Twitter on Monday provided more details about its policies around tweets that declare election results, and named the 7 outlets it will lean on to help it determine whether a race is officially called.

Driving the news: The list includes ABC News, AP, CNN, CBS News, Decision Desk HQ, Fox News and NBC News — all outlets that experts agree have verified, unbiased decision desks calling elections.

Our thought bubble: Some conservatives have alleged that Twitter is biased against them. In the past few weeks, data from the Stanford Cable TV Analyzer shows that Fox News has discussed Jack Dorsey and Big Tech censorship at length.

  • Fox News' Decision Desk is considered very authoritative and is highly-respected amongst media and politics insiders. By including Fox' News' decision desk in this list, Twitter is saying that it believes its decision desk is verified and legitimate.

Details: Twitter previously said that it would require either an announcement from state election officials, or a public projection from at least two authoritative, national news outlets that make independent calls about the race before letting tweets about the results go by unlabeled.

  • If one of the 7 outlets tweets from its main handle a result before another outlet from the group of 7 confirm it, Twitter won't label that tweet.
  • If a reporter or any Twitter user tweets a result without citing one of the select outlets for its decision, that tweet may be labeled.
  • The Twitter will label will say, "Official sources may not have called the race when this tweeted. Find out more." That label will link to Twitter's curated elections information hub.

The big picture: Axios' Jonathan Swan reported on Sunday that President has told confidants he'll declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he's "ahead" in the polls, even if the outcome is not yet determined.

  • Tech platforms have introduced an array of rules and protocols around premature claims of victory on election night, given the unusual nature of this years' election.

Go deeper:

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.