Washington - President Donald Trump said
he will introduce legislation that may scrap or weaken a law
that has protected internet companies, including Twitter
and Facebook, in an extraordinary attempt to
regulate social media platforms where he has been criticised.
The proposed legislation is part of an executive order Trump
signed on Thursday afternoon. Trump had attacked Twitter for
tagging his tweets about unsubstantiated claims of fraud about
mail-in voting with a warning prompting readers to fact-check
the posts.
Trump wants to "remove or change" a provision of a law known
as Section 230 that shields social media companies from
liability for content posted by their users.
Trump said US Attorney General William Barr will begin
drafting legislation "immediately" to regulate social media
companies.
On Wednesday, Reuters reported the White House's plan to
modify Section 230 based on a copy of a draft executive order
that experts said was unlikely to survive legal scrutiny. The
final version of the order released on Thursday had no major
changes except the proposal for a federal legislation.
"What I think we can say is we're going to regulate it,"
Trump said before the signing of the order.
"I've been called by Democrats that want to do this, so I
think you could possibly have a bipartisan situation," said
Republican Trump, who is running for re-election in November.
The Trump Administration is making sure your taxpayer dollars don't go to social media giants that unfairly repress free speech. pic.twitter.com/L3FiJ0eG5L
— The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) May 28, 2020
Twitter called the order "a reactionary and politicised
approach to a landmark law" and said attempts to weaken Section
230 would "threaten the future of online speech."
A Google spokeswoman said the order would harm "America's
economy," while a Facebook spokesman said it would "encourage
platforms to censor anything that might offend anyone."
The order, as written, attempts to circumvent Congress and
the courts in directing changes to long-established
interpretations of Section 230. It represents his latest attempt
to use the tools of the presidency to force private companies to
change policies that he believes are not favorable to him.
"In terms of presidential efforts to limit critical
commentary about themselves, I think one would have to go back
to the Sedition Act of 1798 - which made it illegal to say false
things about the president and certain other public officials -
to find an attack supposedly rooted in law by a president on any
entity which comments or prints comments about public issues and
public people," said First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams.
Jack Balkin, a Yale University constitutional law professor,
said "the president is trying to frighten, coerce, scare, cajole
social media companies to leave him alone and not do what
Twitter has just done to him."
Twitter's shares ended over 4 percent down on Thursday.
Facebook ended down 1.6 percent and Google parent Alphabet Inc
finished slightly up.
Trump, who uses Twitter virtually every day to promote his
policies and insult his opponents, has long claimed without
evidence that the site is biased in favor of Democrats. He and
his supporters have leveled the same unsubstantiated charges
against Facebook, which Trump's presidential campaign uses
heavily as an advertising vehicle.
On Thursday, Trump said there is nothing he would rather do
than get rid of his Twitter account but he had to keep it in
order to circumvent the press and get his version of events to
millions of followers.
He took to Twitter again Thursday night to cast doubt around
voting by mail, tweeting the practice would lead to "MASSIVE
FRAUD AND ABUSE" and "THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY."
The protections of Section 230 have been under fire for
different reasons from lawmakers including Big Tech critic
Senator Josh Hawley. Critics argue that they give internet
companies a free pass on things like hate speech and content
that supports terror organisations.
Social media companies have been under pressure from many
quarters, both in the United States and other countries, to
better control misinformation and harmful content on their
services.
Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey said on the company's
website late Wednesday that the president's tweets "may mislead
people into thinking they don't need to register to get a
ballot. Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting
statements and show the information in dispute so people can
judge for themselves."
After labeling Trump's tweets, Twitter continued to add
fact-checking and 'manipulated media' labels on hundreds of
other tweets.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump's planned order
"outrageous" and a "distraction" from the coronavirus crisis.
Under the order, the Commerce Department has 60 days to
petition the FCC to adopt new rules and then the agency will
review the petition. It could take anywhere from 12 to 24 months
for the FCC to propose and adopt final rules.
Federal spending on online advertising will also be reviewed
by US government agencies to ensure there are no speech
restrictions by a company.