Amid Twitter fact-check row, Trump signs order against social media firms

BERLIN - If US President Donald Trump goes ahead with his threat to close Twitter, the micro-blogging site can always relocate to Germany.

After Trump threatened to shut down Twitter for advising its users to fact-check his tweets, a senior German official suggested in a light-hearted tweet that the California-based company would be better off in Europe.

“This is an invitation to move to Germany!” Thomas Jarzombek, Berlin’s point person for the startup economy, tweeted on Thursday.

“Here you are free to criticise the government as well as to fight fake news. We have a great startup and tech ecosystem, your company would be a perfect fit and I will open any doors for you!”

[embed]https://twitter.com/tj_tweets/status/1265953009059737604[/embed]

Trump is expected to order a legal review after objecting to Twitter’s handling of tweets by the president that made unsubstantiated claims about fraud in mail-in voting.

In a first, the company issued an advisory on Wednesday to check the facts on Trump’s tweets.

Jarzombek’s offer contrasts with Germany’s frequently testy relationship with US social media giants, which face fines of up to 50 million euros (S$78 million) if they fail to quickly remove hateful content from their sites.

But Europe’s largest economy is also keen to establish itself as a hub for tech entrepreneurship and Twitter Inc would be the ultimate catch.