US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks to limit liability protections that social media companies enjoy after Twitter Inc began selective fact checks of his posts on the platform.
Under existing law, companies such as Twitter and Facebook Inc are protected for users’ posts, but Trump told reporters that his order “calls for new regulations under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to make it that social media companies that engage in censoring or any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield.”
Trump’s move comes after Twitter earlier this week labeled two of his posts about mail-in voting “potentially misleading” and provided links to news coverage of his comments.
Photo: AFP
Trump responded with outrage, accusing the social media company of censorship and election interference, and threatening to possibly shut down the service.
“I’m signing an executive order to protect and uphold the free speech rights of the American people,” Trump said. “Currently, social media giants like Twitter receive an unprecedented liability shield based on the theory that they’re a neutral platform, which they’re not.”
Trump said he expected the order or the regulations it produces to be challenged in court.
If it were legal for him to shut down Twitter, “I would do it,” Trump said.
The order said the protections against lawsuits should only apply when companies act in “good faith” to take down or limit the visibility of content.
Any removal or restriction made in a manner that is “deceptive, pretextual or inconsistent with a provider’s terms of service” would not qualify as being in good faith, nor would a move without “adequate notice, reasoned explanation or a meaningful opportunity to be heard,” it added.
Trade group Consumer Technology Association president Gary Shapiro called the order “unconstitutional and ill-considered.”
“America’s Internet companies lead the world and it is incredible that our own political leaders would seek to censor them for political purposes,” Shapiro said.
In a tweeted statement, Twitter called the executive order “a reactionary and politicized approach to a landmark law,” adding: “Attempts to unilaterally erode it threaten the future of online speech and Internet freedoms.”
A Facebook spokesperson said that exposing companies to liability would penalize those that allow controversial speech and “encourage platforms to censor anything that might offend anyone.”
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said in an interview with David Rubenstein on Bloomberg Television while the order was being prepared: “We have worked extraordinarily hard to make sure that all of our policies and systems are built in a fair and neutral and consistent way.”
The US Department of Commerce, in consultation with the US attorney general, would be responsible for petitioning the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) within 60 days to craft the new regulation.
“This debate is an important one,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “The Federal Communications Commission will carefully review any petition for rulemaking filed by the Department of Commerce.”
Industry and civil liberties groups who denounced the order as an illegal end-run around free-speech protections said it gave the FCC powers that it does not actually have.
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