The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Trump signs social media decree and affirms that "he will defend freedom of expression from one of the most serious dangers"

2020-05-28T22:23:15.452Z


Trump said the move is to "defend freedom of expression from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in the history of the United States." Trump vs. Twitter: the ar…


  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
  • Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)

Trump vs. Twitter: what both parties defend 1:48

(CNN) - President Donald Trump on Thursday introduced a decree targeting social media companies, days after Twitter called two of his tweets "potentially misleading."

Speaking from the Oval Office before signing the decree, Trump said the move is to "defend freedom of expression from one of the most serious dangers it has faced in US history."

"A small handful of social media monopolies control a large portion of all public and private communications in the United States," he alleged. "They have had uncontrolled power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter, virtually any form of communication between private citizens and large public audiences."

USA: Trump fights Twitter for disinformation 2:03

The decree tests the limits of the White House's authority. In what is a complicated legal gamble, it seeks to curtail the power of large social media platforms by reinterpreting a critical 1996 law that protects websites and tech companies from lawsuits.

This marks a drastic escalation by Trump in his war with tech companies as they grapple with the growing problem of disinformation on social media. The president has regularly accused sites of censoring conservative speech.

Legal experts say the decree is unstable and potentially unconstitutional, because it seeks to bypass Congress and avoid the courts to come to a completely different understanding of the Communications Decency Law.

"A decree alone cannot change the law," said Tom Wheeler, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. "This was done for the purpose of political intimidation."

Twitter

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-05-28

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-27T06:34:43.648Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.