Trump to sign executive order on social media
amid Twitter furor
‘Big Tech is doing everything in their very
considerable power to CENSOR in advance of the 2020 Election,’ Trump tweets.
By
CRISTIANO LIMA 5/28/20, 1:47 AM CET Updated 5/28/20, 5:47 AM CET
U.S.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order aimed at social
media companies on Thursday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told
reporters Wednesday evening, a move that comes as the president and his allies
have escalated their allegations that companies like Twitter and Facebook
stifle Republican voices.
McEnany
told reporters aboard Air Force One that the order is “pertaining to social
media” but shared no additional details on what it will do. But the
announcement revived fears within the online industry that the Trump
administration will target a 24-year-old statute that protects the companies
from lawsuits — an avenue that a growing number of Republican lawmakers have
advocated in their bias allegations about Silicon Valley.
Trump and
his supporters have been hammering Twitter since the social network labeled a
pair of his tweets with a fact-checking notice for the first time on Tuesday,
and the president pledged Wednesday that "big action" will follow.
Twitter
acted after Trump had alleged without evidence that mail-in ballots are likely
to be “substantially fraudulent,” in tweets that the company said contained
misleading information about the electoral process. The move triggered an array
of rebukes from Republicans, including Trump.
“@Twitter
is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election,” Trump tweeted Wednesday,
adding that “Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President,
will not allow it to happen!”
Democrats,
meanwhile, have complained that Twitter has been too slow to respond to a
litany of abusive, inaccurate or inflammatory tweets from the president,
including his recent baseless insinuations that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough may
be guilty of murder.
POLITICO
reported last year that the White House was circulating a draft executive order
to address long-standing accusations from conservatives about bias by social
media companies. CNN later reported that the order would task the Federal
Communications Commission with developing regulations to clarify when social
media companies qualify for crucial liability protections, and would have the
Federal Trade Commission “take those new policies into account when it
investigates or files lawsuits against misbehaving companies."
But the
executive order was never unveiled, and even Trump's appointees at those
agencies have expressed little appetite for scrutinizing tweets and Facebook
posts.
That
proposal targeted the online industry's prized liability shield over
user-generated content, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The 1996
law broadly protects websites from lawsuits over what their users post, and for
taking good-faith efforts to curb illicit material.
But those
protections, which have been fiercely defended by the tech industry, have come
under scrutiny from officials on both sides of the political spectrum.
Republicans have charged that the shield has enabled social media platforms to
crack down on their viewpoints with impunity. There's no conclusive evidence of
an anti-conservative bias on social media, and the companies have consistently
denied the charges.
Trump's
dust-up with Twitter rekindled Republican calls for Congress to roll back the
legal shield.
Rep. Matt
Gaetz (R-Fla.), a Trump surrogate who has accused Silicon Valley firms of
censorship, announced Wednesday that he’s drafting his own proposal to roll
back those protections if companies engage in “editorializing” or “opine as to
the truth or falsity” of statements online, like those made by Trump regarding
mail-in ballots. Gaetz said he is “working with my Republican colleagues on the
Judiciary Committee” on the legislation, but did not elaborate on the timing
for its introduction.
In a
similar vein, Republican tech critic Senator Josh Hawley wrote in a letter to
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Wednesday that the company's “decision to
editorialize regarding the content of political speech raises questions about why
Twitter should continue receiving special status and special immunity from
publisher liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
"And he later teased on social media plans for a separate proposal to
"end these special government giveaways."
"If
@Twitter wants to editorialize & comment on users’ posts, it should be
divested of its special status under federal law (Section 230) & forced to
play by same rules as all other publishers. Fair is fair," Hawley tweeted.
Some
Democratic lawmakers have also advocated restricting the industry's Section 230
protections, but for very different seasons — such as failing to fact-check
politicians like Trump.
The GOP
calls got rhetorical support Wednesday night from FCC member Brendan Carr, a
Republican who some see as a potential future chairman of the agency. Appearing
on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," he singled out Twitter’s fact
check of Trump’s tweets as imposing a “partisan political viewpoint” and
slammed Facebook’s recent creation of an independent review board to review the
company's content decisions.
“I think
going forward if these entities want to be political actors ... like every
other political actor, they have First Amendment rights, though they shouldn’t
necessarily have these special bonus protections that only that set of
political actors have in Section 230,” Carr said.
The
Republican commissioner also blasted these social media companies for framing
themselves as politically neutral before Congress and then engaging in what he
deemed utterly partisan behavior. “That’s the type of unfair or deceptive
business practice that would get a lot of other companies under a lot of
federal scrutiny, including from the Federal Trade Commission,” Carr remarked.
The White
House's announcement of an incoming executive order Wednesday triggered fears
in Washington tech circles that the Trump administration will revive its push
to empower regulators to reconsider those liability protections — though major
questions remain about how it would be executed.
Congressional
Democrats, meanwhile, continued to portray the GOP's bias allegations as
political theater.
"Twitter’s
milquetoast labeling of two Trump lies — out of thousands — prompts horrifying
demagogic response: shut down the internet," Senator Richard Blumenthal
from the Democratic Party tweeted after Trump's Wednesday remarks. "His
fear-mongering & conspiracy theory peddling is irresponsible, inexcusable,
& authoritarian."
The push to
weaken Section 230 has also faced opposition from within Trump's own party.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the top Republican on the House energy &
commerce consumer protection subcommittee, cast such campaigns as
ill-conceived.
“I want to
be very clear: I’m not for gutting Section 230. It’s essential for consumers
and entities in the internet ecosystem,” she said at a House hearing in
October. “Misguided and hasty attempts to amend or even repeal Section 230 for
bias or other reasons could have unintended consequences for free speech and
the ability for small businesses to provide new and innovative services.”
The push to
have the government step in on social media moderation practices even drew a
rebuttal from Carr, who last year Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for suggesting
public officials should assume a role in setting rules for vetting speech on
social media. "Outsourcing censorship to the government is not just a bad
idea, it would violate the First Amendment," Carr tweeted then. "I’m
a no."
John Hendel
contributed to this report.
Authors:
Cristiano Lima
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