The order aimed at slashing protections to social media by Trump came just days after Twitter labelled one of his tweets as misleading.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed an order to remove legal protection given to social media giants, two days after Twitter labelled his tweet as misleading, AFP reported. The move is called an act of political revenge by critics.
On Tuesday microblogging site Twitter, in first such instance, labelled two tweets from the US President Donald Trump as “potentially misleading” for making false statements about mail-in voting. The move is regarded as important because Twitter has fact-checked the US President for the first time.
Following which, on Wednesday Trump threatened to “strongly regulate” social media platforms, and said Republicans felt the platforms “totally silence conservatives”.
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The order signed by Trump calls on government regulators to assess if online platforms should be eligible for liability protection for content posted by the users. If enforced the order could treat online platforms as “publishers” responsible for user-generated content. Social media giants like Twitter and Facebook, as a result, would become open to lawsuits and increased government scrutiny.
However, Critics said US President has no authority to regulate private internet operators. The American Civil Liberties Union called Trump’s order “a blatant and unconstitutional threat” to punish social media companies.
(Input from Agencies)
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