Donald Trump calls for new rules in social media crackdown

US President Trump signs an executive order calling for social media companies to be held liable for content posted on their platforms.

US President Donald Trump is calling for social media giants to be held liable for the content posted on their platforms. Picture: AP

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order challenging the protection that stops social media companies from being held liable for content posted on their platforms.

Mr Trump made the move after Twitter applied fact check-links to two of his tweets earlier in the week.

Mr Trump said the fact checks were “editorial decisions” made by Twitter and amounted to political activism. Such actions should cost social media companies protection from liability for what is posted on their platforms.

Companies like Twitter and Facebook are granted liability protection under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act because they are treated as “platforms,” rather than categorisation of “publishers” given to traditional media groups, which can face lawsuits over the content the publish.

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 (@WhiteHouse) May 28, 2020

“They’ve had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens or large public audiences,” Mr Trump said of social media companies as he prepared to sign the order.

“There is no precedent in American history for so small a number of corporations to control so large a sphere of human interaction.”

Mr Trump, who personally relies heavily on Twitter to verbally flog his foes, has long accused the tech giants in liberal-leaning Silicon Valley of targeting conservatives by fact-checking them or removing their posts.

“We’re fed up with it,” Mr Trump said, claiming his order would uphold freedom of speech.

Technology industry groups disagreed, saying it removing the protection would stifle innovation and speech on the internet.

There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

The US Chamber of Commerce objected, saying that “regardless of the circumstances that led up to this, this is not how public policy is made in the United States”.

The executive order directs executive branch agencies to ask independent rule-making agencies including the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to study whether they could place new regulations on the “big tech” platforms, which also include the likes of Facebook and Google.

However some experts doubt much can be done without an act of Congress.

“This debate is an important one,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. “The Federal Communications Commission will carefully review any petition for rule-making filed by the Department of Commerce.”

Facebook Chief Mark Zuckerberg moved to avoid being lumped in with Twitter, telling Fox News that Facebook prioritised free expression.

“We have a different policy I think than Twitter on this,” Mr Zuckerbeg said.

Both sites take down content that violates their terms of service, but Facebook’s approach, he said, has “distinguished us from some of the other tech companies in terms of being stronger on free expression and giving people a voice”.

Facebook applies labels to some misleading posts but exempts posts from politicians and outsources fact checking to media partners like Reuters, taking no stances itself.

The split with Twitter comes despite Mr Zuckerberg’s more aggressive posture against misinformation in recent months, including pledges to wipe from Facebook’s apps any misleading posts about the novel coronavirus which could cause physical harm.

Facebook took down a coronavirus-related post from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in March. It also explicitly bans content that misrepresents methods for voting or voter registration “regardless of who it’s coming from”.

Mr Zuckerberg said Mr Trump’s comments on Tuesday did not hit Facebook’s bar to be considered in violation of its voter suppression rules.

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey said Mr Trump’s claims “may mislead people into thinking they don’t need to register to get a ballot.”

A Twitter spokeswoman said that senior executives, including Mr Dorsey, had approved the decision to label Trump’s tweets.

With AAP