The executive order would ask the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to clarify the regulations set forth in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which largely exempts online platforms from legal liability for material posted by their users.
President Donald Trump could sign an executive order against social networks on Thursday that reverts the immunity of the technological giants to the content of their platforms, according to two sources related to the matter, quoted by the Reuters agency.
Trump vs. social media
The President of the United States is expected to order a revision of a law that has long protected Twitter, Facebook and Alphabet (Google) from being responsible for the material published by its users, according to a draft of the order and a source familiar with the decision.
A draft of the executive order was seen by Reuters, although it could undergo changes before being signed by the president.
The new rule would ask the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to clarify the regulations in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that largely exempts online platforms from legal liability for material that publish their users.
In this way, Trump’s order asks the FCC to examine whether the actions related to content editing by companies should reduce or cancel their protection under section 230: a move that seeks that social networks are still neglected more of the content published in them and that could expose them to more lawsuits and legal litigation.
This possible new executive order against social networks does not come out of anywhere. Just a few hours before, the president threatened to control or even close social networks, which he accused of “silencing conservative voices.”
Its new crusade against networks is basically due to a dispute with Twitter after the company decided to mark, for the first time, a Trump tweet with a label that invites users to verify the information. In that particular tweet, as in so many others in which the president offends, lies or gives any kind of information without any proof or verification, Trump claimed that voting by mail implied electoral fraud.
