Trump’s social media executive order faces lawsuit
Trump’s relationship with social media: It’s complicated.
James Martin / CNET
The nonprofit center for democracy and technology is The goal is the social media executive order from US President Donald Trump. The CDT filed a lawsuit against the president on Tuesday alleging that the order violated the first change.
“The order is clearly retaliation: it is attacking a private company, Twitter, because it has used its initial adjustment right to comment on the President’s statements,” the lawsuit said. “Basically, the Order is trying to limit and cool the constitutionally-protected speech of all online platforms and individuals by demonstrating its willingness to use the government’s authority to take revenge against those who criticize the government.”
Last week Trump tweeted that mail-in ballots for the November election were “essentially fraudulent”, prompting Twitter to assign a fact-checking label to the comments that included “potentially misleading information” and provided a link so users could find out more. Trump followed up with a tweet that he was taking a “big deal” against social media companies.
The situation culminated in Trump signing an executive order last Thursday for social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The ordinance instructs the Department of Commerce to request the Federal Communications Commission to repeal or restrict Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, a law that protects online platforms from liability for user-published content.
“The censorship and bias is a threat to freedom itself,” Trump card said when signing. He accused social media companies of not being “neutral platforms”.
On Friday, Twitter also posted a tweet from the president about protests and riots in Minnesota George Floyd’s death in police custody. This time, Twitter picked out Trump’s tweet behind a warning sign that the post violated the website’s “Glorification of Violence” website rules. However, since the president’s words are of public interest, users can click the Show button to read Trump’s tweet, according to Twitter.
The executive regulation is designed to “prevent social media services from addressing misinformation, suppression of voters and inciting violence on their platforms,” said Alexandra Givens, managing director of the Center for Democracy and Technology on Tuesday.
“CDT filed a lawsuit today because the President’s actions are a direct attack on the freedom of expression protected by the first change,” said Givens. “The government cannot and should not force online mediators to moderate the speech according to the whims of the president. Blocking this order is critical to protecting freedom of expression and continuing important work to ensure the integrity of the 2020 election.”
Meanwhile Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his refusal to dismantle or label similar items earlier Tuesday despite to be struck by civil rights leadersand despite some Facebook employees protest Monday. Zuckerberg said last week that social media platforms should not check the president for facts.
