United States President Donald Trump has signed a controversial executive order that could allow federal officials in the US to go after technology giants like Twitter, Facebook and Google over how those companies treat content that appears on their websites.
The president, whom The Independent claims, has uttered “thousands of false or misleading statements” since taking office, complained as he signed the missive that social media firms have, what he called, “unchecked power,” adding: “Imagine if your phone company edited or silenced your conversations.”
Trump signed the order two days after Twitter, for the first time, placed a link on a pair of Trump’s tweets that guided users to news articles that fact-checked his statements about mail-in-ballots.
The Independent reports that Trump reacted angrily, saying all week that the company was trying to censor him the way he and others on the conservative right say Twitter and its tech cousins have done to scores of other conservatives online. President Trump believes that Twitter flagged his posts because the company has its own “political viewpoint” and that the move was an example of “political activism” from Twitter’s part.
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In terms of scope and impact, the reach of this executive order is not yet completely known. Reportedly, the tech industry is huddling together and planning potential legal action, calling the order illegal. The president likewise expects a court battle, telling the media “I guess it’s going to be challenged in court, but what isn’t?”
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that the current law erects “shields” behind which “we cannot see” how social media firms make content decisions. The idea behind the order, she says, is to “remove” some and “shed some light” behind those decisions.
Tech sector advocates and officials have been warning that this new order might have dire effects on free speech in the United States.
The Executive Order is “Legally Meaningless”
Tech Dirt reports that, despite its possible implications, the order is in fact, meaningless.
“The executive order is nonsense. You can’t overrule the law by executive order, nor can you ignore the Constitution. This executive order attempts to do both. It’s also blatantly anti-free speech, anti-private property, pro-big government,” Tech Dirt writes.
Edited by Luis Monzon
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