Later on today, the United States President Donald Trump is poised to sign an executive order on social-media companies.
This is his first move in pertaining Silicone Valley Apps while, at the very same time, escalating his war on Twitter Inc.
“President Trump is set to sign an executive order pertaining to social media on Thursday,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Wednesday.
The announcement follows a multiday feud between the president and Twitter. The social media giant applied for the first time an informational label to one of the president’s tweets on Tuesday.
The warning, urging users to “get the facts about mail-in ballots,” was attached to two posts in which Trump railed against mail-in voting in California, claiming without evidence that the practice is full of fraud.
“These Tweets contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labelled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots,” a spokesperson for the social media platform told The Hill.
Trump and his supporters quickly pounced on the fact check, accusing the company of bias against conservatives.
“We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message through to voters. Partnering with the biased fake news media ‘fact-checkers’ is only a smokescreen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility,” Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, said in a statement.
Last weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was considering the creation of a panel to review anti-conservative bias on social media platforms.
“Left-wing bias in the tech world is a concern that definitely needs to be addressed from our vantage point, and at least exposed [so] that Americans have clear eyes about what we’re dealing with,” a White House official told the paper.
In a series of tweets Wednesday, Trump threatened to “regulate” or even “close” social-media platforms.
However, Legal experts scoffed at the president’s ability to moderate f social-media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook Inc. FB, -1.31% and Snap Inc. SNAP, -2.35% .
It is unclear how an executive order would affect the ability of Twitter to apply labels on false or misleading content.
The Trump administration reportedly drafted an executive order titled “Protecting Americans from Online Censorship” in 2019 that would let the Federal Communications Commission change how Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is interpreted.
That law, which is considered foundational to the modern internet by most tech companies, gives platforms legal immunity for content posted by third-party users while also giving them legal cover to make good-faith efforts to moderate their platforms.
Speculation centred on whether Trump would push for new legislation or pressure U.S. regulators to sue the companies.
Multiple lawsuits claiming suppression of conservative viewpoints on social media platforms have been rejected by courts, including one brought Wednesday by far-right activist Laura Loomer.
This is coming at a time when Donald Trump’s family have started showing the middle finger to Jack Dorsey’s App.
Last night, Donald Trumps son Eric Trump and daughter Laura Trump joined Parler, as the word in conservative circles say Trump may be joining the social media app after Twitter censorship
July 10, 2020
