Trump plans to sign an executive order ‘pertaining to social media’ on Thursday, shortly after he accused Twitter of squashing free speech – By Tyler Sonnemaker (Business Insider) / May 27 2020
- The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, has said President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order “pertaining to social media,” several White House reporters aboard Air Force One tweeted on Wednesday.
- McEnany gave no details about what Trump’s order would do but said it would be signed Thursday, according to Yamiche Alcindor, the “PBS NewsHour” White House correspondent.
- The Washington Post reported that the order might encourage federal agencies to investigate tech companies’ moderation policies and narrow Section 230, which shields them from legal liability for content published on their platforms.
- A law professor tweeted that she had obtained a draft of the order, saying it would argue that fact-checking is “editorial” speech and thus isn’t protected under Section 230.
- Legal experts have expressed doubt that Trump has the legal authority to regulate social-media companies in the way he has threatened, citing free-speech protections.
President Donald Trump is planning to issue an executive order Thursday “pertaining to social media,” according to several White House reporters who were briefed aboard Air Force One on Wednesday evening.
The White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, offered no details about what the directive might include, but The Washington Post reported that it could empower various federal agencies to penalize social-media companies such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google for their content-moderation practices.
Two officials familiar with the order told the paper the directive would task the US Commerce Department with asking the Federal Communications Commission to look at narrowing the scope of Section 230, a provision of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that shields internet companies from legal liability for content published on their sites and gives them broad power to moderate that content.
The sources also told The Post that the order could funnel complaints about political bias to the Federal Trade Commission, which could then investigate social-media companies’ content-moderation practices and require federal agencies to conduct a review of their social-media advertising spending.
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