Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship
Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship
Last week, Twitter took unprecedented action by attaching fact checks to two of President Donald Trump’s tweets, prompting the President to tweet, “[w]e will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen." The two tweets at issue called mail-in ballots “fraudulent” and warned that “mail boxes will be robbed.” Twitter did not censor or remove the President’s tweets, but it did provide a link beneath the tweets that would take users to a page providing fact checks and articles about the merits of the President’s allegations. Trump Tweeted that the social media platform ‘interfered in the 2020 Presidential Election’ and that ‘he would not allow such a thing to happen.’ For years, many conservatives have alleged a systematic bias in the tech sector and demanded that they should not continue to be treated as publishers and thus, should not enjoy liability protections as “platforms” under federal law. In other words, social media giants could face lawsuits over the content on their platforms. On May 28, 2020, President Trump took the first steps in taking away such protections granted to social media platforms by signing an Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship. The order targets social media companies and is intended to pave the way for regulators to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The implications of these developments are alarming, especially the fear of foreign influence on US elections via social media platforms, and the push to fact check untrue or inaccurate stories to battle such influences. The other obvious implication will be the down pouring of suits that will be filed against social media companies if regulators remove social media company’s liability protections. However, what will most certainly happen is a drawn-out balancing act between protecting individuals 1st amendment rights and stopping the spread of inaccurate information.
by Arya Mansour