President Donald Trump on Thursday will sign an executive order in retribution for Twitter appending a “get the facts” label on two of his tweets that were not only false but designed to suppress the vote. On Wednesday Trump responded to the new labels by tweeting, “Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices,” which is false, and promising tech companies he would “strongly regulate, or close them down.”
That seeds of that promise will be sown today with an executive order that would lay the groundwork to make tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Google legally liable for content posted to them by users. The Washington Post reports the order “could roll back the immunity that tech giants have for the content on their sites.”
Ironically, if implemented, it would force Twitter to delete many of the President’s own tweets. For example, he is currently engaged in an online smear campaign against Joe Scarborough, accusing the MSNBC host of murdering an intern who died of natural causes in 2001.
Just last night Trump posted a link to a video from a supporter that begins, “I’ve come to the conclusion that the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” The speaker is reportedly an Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner and the head of Cowboys for Trump. President Trump tweeted his thanks:
Trump’s executive order would direct the federal government to reinterpret a law called Section 230, which “spares tech companies from being held liable for the comments, videos and other content posted by users on their platforms.”
The President’s intended changes “could mean potentially dramatic free-speech implications and wide-ranging consequences.”
Trump gleefully hinted at the executive order Thursday morning.