Trump Seeks End to Social Media Protections after Twitter Spat

Washington, May 23(BNA): US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks to end special protections for some social media companies, as the president escalates his feud with Twitter after the platform fact-checked his tweets.

Trump said the executive order will allow federal regulators to end liability protections for social media companies like Facebook and Twitter that have restricted and policed content on their platforms, said dpa international.

“They've had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens or large public audiences,” Trump said from the White House. “We're fed up with it.”

The current interpretation of law protects social media platforms from being sued over content posted by a third party on their sites.

Trump said the liability shield should no longer apply to social media companies because they are acting as a “editor with a viewpoint” not a neutral platform.

The order is expected to face legal challenges and Attorney General Bill Barr said the Trump administration will pursue legislation in tandem with the executive order.

Trump's move escalates a feud between the president and Twitter after the social media giant fact-checked two of Trump's tweets on mail-in voting, which were widely considered to be false.

The fact-check indicated the president was making false claims that voting by post would lead to mass fraud, amid a fight between Democrats and Trump over expanding voters' ability to cast their ballots in this election year during a pandemic.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg says social media firms should not be 'arbiters of truth' as US President Donald Trump threatens them with regulation https://t.co/tnMrAKW8CO

— dpa news agency (@dpa_intl) May 28, 2020

Twitter chief Jack Dorsey explained the tweet may have misled voters into thinking they do not need to register for a ballot, indicating this was a particular category of concern as it could harm people's ability to cast a vote.

Fact-checking “does not make us an ‘arbiter of truth,'” Dorsey said. “Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves.”

Speaking from the White House Trump said he would delete his Twitter account – featuring over 80 million followers – in a “heartbeat” but he needs the soapbox to bypass “fake news.”

Meanwhile, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday appeared to back Trump's stance against Twitter, saying major social media companies should not position themselves as the gatekeepers of political speech online.

“I don't think Facebook, or internet platforms in general, should be arbiters of truth,” Zuckerberg said in an interview that aired Thursday on CNBC, a cable news channel, calling this a “dangerous line.”

Zuckerberg said that while Facebook does not want to be “determining what is true or false,” the company does have limits, including false medical information, voter suppression or hoaxes.

“There are lines, and we will enforce them,” Zuckerberg said.

“But, I think, in general, you want to give as wide a voice as possible, and give particular deference to political speech.”

In a separate interview with Fox, another cable channel, Zuckerberg said Facebook was determined to “give people a voice” and indicated he would also be opposed to government restrictions on free speech.

“I'll have to understand what they actually would intend to do, but, in general, I think a government choosing to censor a platform because they're worried about censorship doesn't exactly strike me as the right reflex there,” the Facebook founder said.

AHN

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