Trump signs EO for removal of liability protections of social media platforms

Standing beside Attorney General Bill Barr, President Trump signed an Executive Order to remove statutory liability protections and cut federal funding for tech companies that engage in censorship and political conduct.

This came two days after Twitter put a warning label on a tweet about mail-in voting with only CNN Politics as their source. There is a lot of evidence to the contrary.

Trump called the fact-check “egregious,” and held up a photo of Twitter executive Yoel Roth, who heads up the site’s fact-checking and rules-making operation.

“My executive order calls for new regulations under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to make it so that social media companies that engage in censoring any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield,” the president said.

He added: “My executive order further instructs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to prohibit social media companies from engaging in any deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce. This commerce resides in Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. … Additionally, I’m directing the attorney general to work cooperatively with the states … to enforce their own laws against such deceptive business practices. The states have broad and powerful authority to regulate in this arena.”

THE MOMENT TWITTER CEASES TO BE NEUTRAL

“The choices that Twitter makes when it chooses to suppress, edit, blacklist, shadowban are editorial decisions, pure and simple,” Trump said. “In those moments Twitter ceases to be a neutral public platform and they become an editor with a viewpoint.”

Also at the signing ceremony, Trump openly said he would “shut down” Twitter if he could legally. He also called out Facebook’s new oversight “tribunal” for hiring Pamela Karlan, the anti-Trump professor who testified at his impeachment hearing.

“Finally, I’m directing my administration to develop policies and procedures to ensure taxpayer dollars are not going to any social media company that suppresses free speech,” Trump said. They’re rich enough.”

“What they’re doing is tantamount to monopoly, to taking over the airwaves,” Trump said. “Can’t let it happen. Or else we’re not gonna have a democracy.”

Pres. Trump: “I’m signing an Executive Order to protect and uphold the free speech and rights of the American people. Currently, social media giants like Twitter receive an unprecedented liability shield based on the theory that they are a neutral platform, which they are not.” pic.twitter.com/awl4RULTRR

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 28, 2020

Democrats — Nadler, Blumenthal, et al — are ranting against the President’s actions even though they themselves have called for regulating the social media platforms.

FACEBOOK’S ZUCKERBERG SAID TWITTER SHOULDN’T BE ARBITERS OF TRUTH

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told CNBC he does not think social networks should be fact-checking what politicians post.

Zuckerberg’s comment came after “Squawk Box” co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked him for thoughts on Twitter’s decision to start fact-checking the tweets of President Donald Trump.

He said the same thing on Fox News and the Twitter left is infuriated he went on to that network.

“We have a different policy than, I think, Twitter on this,” Zuckerberg told “The Daily Briefing” in an interview scheduled to air in full on Thursday.

“I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online,” he added. “Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.”

From personal experience, we find that FB sits on our page waiting for us to make a mistake, no matter how small.

I guess we can consider this Jack Dorsey’s response. He is doubling down:

They aren’t removing the warning and CEO Jack Dorsey said he will continue to fact-check politicians. Of course, he can’t seem to find a thing wrong with the Democrats.

Here’s the head of his integrity censorship team:

This person is the “head of site integrity” at Twitter pic.twitter.com/hyZcl5VIe0

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) May 27, 2020