Trump threatens to "regulate" and even "close" social networks after Twitter tagged his posts

• 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)

President Trump's atypical way of doing politics 3:44

(CNN) - United States President Donald Trump threatened to "strongly regulate" or even shut down social media platforms, after Twitter did a data check on two of his posts this week.

The president did not give additional details on what actions he could take. However, this threat is the clearest expression of Trump's intention to use government power to attack those he perceives to be his political enemies in the private sector: companies that already enjoy wide freedom under the law to moderate their platforms as they see fit. And the situation also raises bets for Twitter and Facebook as they grapple with Trump's misleading claims about voting by mail and his unfounded hints that a newscaster was involved in the death of an assistant decades ago.

• READ: For the first time, Twitter labels Trump tweets as "potentially misleading"

"Republicans feel that social media platforms totally silence conservative voices. We will either tightly regulate them or close them before we even allow this to happen, ”Trump tweeted Wednesday. He then accused the tech industry of trying to interfere in the 2016 election, before repeating an unsubstantiated claim about voter fraud stemming from voting by mail.

"We cannot allow large-scale electoral voting by mail to take root in our country," the president tweeted. "It would be free for everyone to cheat, falsify and steal ballots. Whoever cheated the most would win. Likewise, social networks. Get it right NOW! ”He wrote.

Facebook and Twitter declined to comment on this Wednesday.

An hour later, also on Wednesday morning, Trump anticipated a "great action" regarding social media, but declined to elaborate on what it could be.

Trump's outburst on Twitter came after an unprecedented decision by this social network to apply for the first time a data verification label to Trump's content.

The tag, which Twitter has designed to combat disinformation and unverified claims, is linked to a page with links and article summaries describing how Trump's claims about voting by mail are unfounded.

Shortly after its content was tagged, Trump turned to Twitter to claim that the company "is interfering in the 2020 presidential election" and "smothering FREE EXPRESSION." He also added that "it will not allow this to happen."

But Twitter's data verification decision raised additional doubts whether the platform would treat Trump's misleading claims about Lori Klausutis, an assistant to former representative Joe Scarborough, a prominent Trump critic, the same way. In recent days, the president has made unsubstantiated allegations against Scarborough that hint that he was responsible for Klausutis' death. The claims have been undermined by the official autopsy, which found that Klausutis had an undiagnosed heart condition. Klausutis' husband Timothy Klausutis reiterated that in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last week, noting that Trump's claims denigrated his wife's memory for perceived political gain.

• LEE: He asked Twitter to remove Trump's fake tweets about his dead wife. And Twitter said no

Twitter told CNN Business that it will not remove tweets about Scarborough.

Trump's options are limited

Trump's options for cracking down on social media are somewhat limited, according to legal experts.

The most "obvious" course of action, according to Andrew Schwartzman of the Benton Broadband Institute and Society, would be for Trump to seek changes to the Communications Decency Act, which protects technology platforms from legal liability across a wide range online content.

There is an ongoing push, led by the Justice Department and Republicans in Congress, to do just that. Now changing the law would require building a broad consensus in a divided Congress. The Trump government cannot do it alone. A new law specifying how tech companies should monitor their platforms could raise questions about the constitutionality of the legislation.

On Wednesday, Jessica Rosenworcel, a member of the Democratic-affiliated Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on the five-member panel, seemed to allude to that when she tweeted the text of the First Amendment.

Trump could pressure agencies like the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take action against social media companies. But entities have on previous occasions resisted efforts by the White House to transform them into arbiters of political discourse, and experts say the FCC lacks jurisdiction over Twitter and Facebook.

Privately, FCC and FTC officials have expressed concern over a previous White House proposal to name those agencies as direct regulators of political content on social media.

Meanwhile, the main ones in the technology industry remain under federal and state investigation for antitrust issues. But antitrust inquiries tend to be highly technical and generally limited to the impact of corporate conduct on competition in the market.

• LOOK: Trump had another wild weekend on Twitter and this is why we should not normalize it

David Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University and a former FTC senior consumer protection official, said any government pressure to restrict how private platforms moderate their websites could spark questions about the First Amendment.

"This is just another example of Trump thinking that the Constitution makes him king, but he doesn't," he said.

Long-time complaints from conservatives

Trump and some conservatives have long complained that tech platforms censor algorithms from right-wing voices. The claims stem from the perception that the largely left-wing Silicon Valley workforce has designed social media products to discriminate against conservatives, although the companies strongly deny these allegations.

Some executives, such as Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, have tried to accommodate conservative voices by meeting with them privately and even meeting Trump himself.

Trump has previously suggested that the US government You could take action against the media you don't like. Last year, the White House created a website to solicit complaints from the public about the political bias perceived by tech companies, and Trump has asked for an examination of NBC's television license, even though he doesn't have one.

Earlier this month, Trump tweeted: "The radical left is in charge and in full control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google," and promised, without details, that his government would "remedy this illegal situation." Following that post, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has considered setting up a White House commission to study conservative bias charges.

Donald TrumpFacebookTwitter