WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that takes away legal protections enjoyed by social media platforms.
Trump's move comes a day after he threatened to close down social media platforms after Twitter alerted users to fact-check his 'false claim' that Mail-In Ballots will lead to massive corruption and fraud.
A statement issued by the White House Thursday said the President is taking 'New Action To Protect Americans' Rights To Free Speech On Social Media.'
The order calls for the start of a regulatory process to clarify the scope of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to ensure social media companies that engage in deceptive or pretextual censorship will not receive liability protections 'when they act as editors of content on their platform or take down lawful speech based on politics'.
The executive order instructs the Federal Trade Commission to prohibit social media companies from engaging in any deceptive acts or practices affecting commerce.
Without naming Twitter, the anti-media President said the social media giants, based in the United States, had 'unchecked power' to censure and edit the views of users.
Trump said that in a country that has long valued freedom of expression, it is not acceptable for a limited number of online platforms to hand-pick speech that Americans may access and convey.
'The idea that large, powerful social media companies have the ability to censor opinions with which they disagree is fundamentally un-American and anti-democratic,' according to him.
Trump unfurled a long list of accusations targeting social media giants by naming them.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have all profited off the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to subjugate their people and spread misinformation around the world, he said.
He accused online platforms of 'denigrating national discourse by disfavoring certain viewpoints', and 'simultaneously profiting from disinformation spread by foreign governments'.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX